Public Interest in Immunity and the Justification for Intervention in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Google Trends Data (Preprint)

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> The use of social big data is an important emerging concern in public health. Internet search volumes are useful data that can sensitively detect trends of the public's attention during a pandemic outbreak situation. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> Our study aimed to analyze the public’s interest in COVID-19 proliferation, identify the correlation between the proliferation of COVID-19 and interest in immunity and products that have been reported to confer an enhancement of immunity, and suggest measures for interventions that should be implemented from a health and medical point of view. </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> To assess the level of public interest in infectious diseases during the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak, we extracted Google search data from January 20, 2020, onward and compared them to data from March 15, 2020, which was approximately 2 months after the COVID-19 outbreak began. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected &lt;i&gt;coronavirus&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;immune&lt;/i&gt;, and &lt;i&gt;vitamin&lt;/i&gt; as our final search terms. </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> The increase in the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases that occurred after January 20, 2020, had a strong positive correlation with the search volumes for the terms &lt;i&gt;coronavirus&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;=0.786; &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001), &lt;i&gt;immune&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;=0.745; &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001), and &lt;i&gt;vitamin&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;=0.778; &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001), and the correlations between variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country basis when we restricted our analyses to the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for the terms &lt;i&gt;coronavirus&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;immune&lt;/i&gt; preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> Our study shows that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public’s desire and actions of strengthening their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic, social media platforms have a high potential for informing the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity, thereby increasing the public’s knowledge. </sec>