Infodemics during era of COVID-19 pandemic: A review of literature.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread across the globe and has affected the health of millions of people. During the pandemic, social media was the major source of information for isolated and anxious people. Infodemics is defined as "an overburden of information - some accurate and some not - that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy source and reliable guidance when they need it." Misinformation raised out of infodemics during COVID-19 created many serious issues regarding the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. With the help of available literature, we aimed to review the role of infodemic in relation to worsening of COVID-19 spread and vaccine utilization with possible preventable measures to control infodemic. Various social media platforms were a major source of infodemic. The active role of world agencies, narrative guidelines by the local authority, use of artificial intelligence (AI) by social media platforms and active participation of community and health care professionals can control infodemics effectively.

COVID-19 vaccine express strategy in Malawi: An effort to reach the un-reach.

OBJECTIVES: To establish the impact of "Covid-19 Vaccination express" (CVE) on vaccine uptake in Malawi. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study to compare the daily vaccine administration rate in CVE and routine covid vaccination (RCV). RCV data was collected from March 2021 to October 2021. The data regarding CVE was collected from 5 November 2021 to 31 December 2021. Data was collected regarding (1) the total number and type of vaccine doses administered and (2) Demographic details like age, gender, occupation, presence of comorbidities, the first dose, or the second dose of the people who received a vaccine. RESULTS: From March-December 2021, a total of 1,866,623 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered, out of which 1,290,145 doses were administered at a mean daily vaccination rate of 1854 (95 % CI: 1292-2415) doses as a part of RCV, and 576,478 doses were administered at a mean daily vaccination rate of 3312 (95 % CI: 2377-4248) doses as a part of CVE. Comparing the mean daily doses (Astra Zeneca, AZ doses 1 & 2) administered in the CVE and RCV showed that the mean daily doses of AZ vaccine administered were significantly higher in the CVE (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: CVE successfully increased the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine.