Background: Since the beginning of the new coronavirus pandemic, there has been much information about the disease and the virus has been in the spotlight, shared and commented upon on the Internet. However, much of this information is infodemics and can interfere with the advancement of the disease and that way that populations act. Thus, Brazil is a country that requires attention, as despite the fact that in almost two years of pandemic it has shown a devastating numbers of deaths and number of cases, and generates false, distorted and malicious news about the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
March 2022
Due to COVID-19, a huge amount of incorrect information has been disseminated on the internet, which may interfere with the disease's advance. This study analyzes the behavior of the Brazilian population during the pandemic, employing queries of infodemic data searched on Google Trends and relating them to socioeconomic and political indicators in the country. The z-score technique was used to standardize the data; and for multivalued analysis, dendrograms and the Elbow method detected similar patterns among Brazilian states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Internet Res
August 2020
Background: In Brazil, a substantial number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and deaths have been reported. It has become the second most affected country worldwide, as of June 9, 2020. Official Brazilian government sources present contradictory data on the impact of the disease; thus, it is possible that the actual number of infected individuals and deaths in Brazil is far larger than those officially reported.
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