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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2023 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 1 | Page : 1-2 |
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Social media and the Iranian COVID-19 crisis
Seyed MohammadReza Hashemian
Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Clinical Tuberculosis and Epidemiology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| Date of Submission | 01-Nov-2022 |
| Date of Decision | 23-Jan-2023 |
| Date of Acceptance | 04-Feb-2023 |
| Date of Web Publication | 13-Mar-2023 |
Correspondence Address:
Seyed MohammadReza Hashemian
Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Clinical Tuberculosis and Epidemiology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran
Iran
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/jpdtsm.jpdtsm_3_23
How to cite this article:
Hashemian SM. Social media and the Iranian COVID-19 crisis. J Prev Diagn Treat Strategies Med 2023;2:1-2 |
Upon the death of two patients in Qom province on February 19, 2020, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the entry of the virus in Iran was officially announced. Public was already highly concerned because of continuous flights from China amid ongoing news coverage of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China.
On February 20, 2020, the first COVID-19 patient was confirmed in Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran. The patient was a 25-year-old male transferred from Shahrood (a Northeastern city in Iran) due to refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome and found to be positive for COVID-19. Because of the prior successful experience with the 2009 H1N1 virus, this hospital became a designated COVID-19 reference center within 24 h.
Hospital staff started to use personal-protective equipment, taking pictures and posting comments online. Thanks to widespread activities of the staff on Instagram (one of the few social networking services that is not banned in Iran), public became aware and media requested coverage within hours. Media correspondents were not allowed to enter the hospital, which was not calming to the ever-growing public anxiety.
More than 70% of the population has Internet access in Iran and the majority of people get their news and information online. This was considered a pivotal moment and potential way to provide first-hand information to public. The Instagram account providing critical care news and information had only 589 followers before the COVID-19 outbreak. Once COVID-19 news was started to be provided to public through this account, the number of followers increased to more than 3000 within 48 h on February 23, 2020. Since then, we have observed an exponential increase in the number of followers [Graph 1]. Recently, the news of the out of corona in the United States announced by Professor Fauchi (April 2022) led to a significant increase in the number of followers. We have been uploading educational material, news, and encouraging videos, which included interviews with intensive care unit staff focusing on conveying the message to people to remain calm and to teach them what to do during the outbreak. Over a short period, it drew the attention of all major national and international news agencies. This popularity came at a price. Sections of the government were not happy, and communications were in place to reprimand or take more serious actions against it but thanks to public attention, an independent petition was initiated by people and stopped any such action to date. This also created the power to influence decision-making for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. First treatments in Iran and results from remdesivir and favipiravir treatments were first announced through this channel and lead to conditional approval of the treatment by authorities and coverage by insurance companies.
Critical case survived cases, Instagram lives with Turkish physicians, request for vaccination and hospitalization of two famous football players were issues that led to a significant increase in the number of views in the continuation of the activities of this page. [Figure 1] shows the Instagram page picture at April 29, 2022.
With conflicting message from different sections of the government regarding COVID-19, we feel the need for independent and reliable channels to communicate reality, provide first-hand news, and educate the public. This is practically a new chapter in telemedicine for the Iranian society and empowering their spirits. In fact, social media has changed the way that medicine and public health is taught and practiced over this short period of time.[1]
| References | |  |
| 1. | Wilkinson JN, Wong AV, Malbrain ML. Social media in critical care: Entering an exciting New Era. In: Vincent JL, editor. Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2019. Springer International Publishing; 2019. p. 667-74.  |
[Figure 1]
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