Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 28, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 12, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Aug 13, 2021
A long-lasting negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic on public sentiment: a full-year tracking of online public sentiment in mainland China
ABSTRACT
Background:
As the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a wide range of panic in the general public, it is essential to understand how online public sentiments change during the pandemic given its importance for mental health policy.
Objective:
Previous studies consistently showed a devastating negative impact of COVID-19 on public sentiments after the outbreak. However, it remains unclear the variation of public sentiment during the recovery phase of the pandemic.
Methods:
In the current study, we continuously tracked online public sentiment through the year 2020 by analyzing emotion reflected on 64,723,242 posts across China’s largest social media platform Sina Weibo.
Results:
We found that the pandemic not only affected online public sentiment in the initial outbreak but also induced long-term negative effects even in the aftermath of the successful recovery from the pandemic. The long-term negative effect was not due to the pandemic’s severity either locally or globally, or even the post-pandemic economic recession.
Conclusions:
COVID-19 induces long-term negative effects on public sentiments even in the aftermath of the successful recovery from the pandemic. It reminds public health and government administrators of the need to pay heed to public mental health even once the pandemic has concluded.
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