Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, social media posts related to COVID-19 from cardiovascular influencers increased significantly, with content peaking in April, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Using GlobalData’s Cardiovascular Influencer database, there were only eight and 36 COVID-19-related posts in January and February, respectively, which increased to over 390 in March. A peak of just under 420 tweets was seen in April, with a decrease in May to 300 posts.
Kathryn Whitney, MSc, Director of Thematic Analysis, comments: “One common topic that cardiovascular influencers discussed in April and May was stroke and COVID-19. In January and February, no posts relating to this topic were seen from key influencers, while, in March, stroke was discussed in just 1% of posts.”
“However, in both April and May, ‘stroke’ was the second-highest trending keyword for COVID-19–related posts, appearing in 15% and 18%, respectively.”
Key posts during these months highlighted the increased risk of stroke for patients with severe COVID-19, and in May, tweets noted that young and middle-aged COVID-19 patients were dying of a stroke. In addition, a high number of posts in April and May highlighted that stroke and heart attack victims were avoiding hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis.
Whitney concludes: “Unfortunately, as the pandemic continues to rage, hospital staff and researchers are uncovering more worrying manifestations of COVID-19. The increased volume of online conversation about stroke seen from April onwards is in line with the emergence of evidence that severe COVID-19 is a risk factor for acute ischemic stroke.
“As the weeks progressed, there were reports of a significant increase in the numbers of young COVID-19 patients experiencing strokes in hospitals, many of who had no underlying conditions or risk factors. Healthcare professionals must be vigilant and respond quickly to signs of a stroke, whereas those recovering from COVID-19 should seek immediate medical attention if they experience any neurological symptoms.”
