Table 2.
The most significant topics discussed by health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Title | Example tweet | Explanation | Top 25 wordsa |
| Public health and social values (topic 0) | “Medicare being defunded for primary care services. There’s a huge opportunity to reform healthcare to invest where the best evidence sits. Primary care & preventive activities. (Public health too cos investment in public housing education & early life is essential part of this)” | Tweets on this topic discuss issues of public health policy and its applications as well as social values that are mostly related to health aspects. | People, need, would, know, think, care, make, health, many, one, get, time, take, want, work, even, way, agree, thing, also, help, say, right, public, doctor |
| Day-to-day life (topic 1) | “10 years ago I was sitting on the sofa waiting to watch Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. Tonight, I am sitting on the sofa waiting to watch Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. In ten years time, I hope to be sitting on the sofa waiting to watch Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. #Hootenanny” | This topic contains tweets that mainly describe typical everyday situations. | Get, time, good, one, well, year, got, going, know, week, last, thing, back, really, still, done, work, would, home, see, think, yes, look, first feel |
| Food (topic 2) | “This is so delicious and easy. I have been eating and making it for 35 years..... 4oz (125g) blanched almonds, toasted 4oz cherries 2oz mixed candied peel 2oz raisins 2oz sultanas 2oz currants 1 des sp mixed spice 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg” | This topic consists of tweets about restaurants, impressions from dishes, recipes, and other food-related matters. | Love, man, one, news, say, trump, story, guy, know, new, would, shit, game, look, show, think, eat, ever, via, song, want, make, food, said, house |
| Politics (topic 3) | “I want my President to respect Americans. Republican Americans, Democrat Americans, members of our American military, our democracy, women, law and order, the Constitution, our country...” | The tweets on this topic are generally related to politics and government, particularly to the United States’ contemporary affairs. | Trump, vote, president, right, state, via, video, true, win, biden, party, sign, country, police, election, american, america, sir, law, watch, india, funny, stop, joe, republican |
| Professional achievements (topic 6) | “Proud of all the amazing accomplishments of our fellowship graduates Deputy Medical Director of [hospital], will be presenting at EMSWorld (EMS - EMT - Paramedic Emergency Medical Services) Expo.” | This topic contains tweets that commend teams and individuals for professional accomplishments. | Great, thanks, team, please, work, amazing, friend, looking, congratulation, forward, proud, student, support, share, today, colleague, sharing, fantastic, join, new, welcome, awesome, look, help, brilliant |
| Medical studies and COVID-19 information (topic 8) | “Nice article on Remdesivir & renal dysfxn. Interesting a 117% (over 2x) increase in end of therapy AKI occurred in pts w/ renal dysfxn was not statistically significant (5% vs 2.3%). Stats are so... interesting... sometimes similar numbers (sample size?) result in FDA approval.” | The tweets on this topic are primarily about science communication of medical studies and epidemiological information related to COVID-19. | Patient, case, test, study, data, risk, disease, use, death, testing, treatment, vaccine, new, rate, surgery, cancer, result, care, also, interesting, number, via, symptom, trial, infection |
| Loss and consolation (topic 9) | “Sad to hear May Allah rest him in peace and give you and family Sabar! Ameen” | Tweets on this topic convey sorrow and are meant to console individuals and families for the loss of loved ones. | May, family, child, sorry, hear, thought, kid, sad, rest, parent, school, young, loss, loved, sending, thinking, peace, memory, adult, indeed, dad, prayer, anxiety, mom, soul |
| Account promotion (topic 10) | “Active? Drop your username and retweet lets follow each other Grow together ..FOLLOW BACK.. follow back immediately..No Lie.. Try me” | This topic essentially contains tweets meant to promote accounts and tweets with information about accounts’ activities on Twitter. | Thank, much, let, back, follow, twitter, see, kind, together, tweet, lie, try, dear, drop, retweet, appreciate, active, mention, reach, immediately, grow, following, fan, week, reply |
| Picture challenges (topic 16) | “Day 5/7, I’ve been challenged by [user mention] to produce a picture a day for 7 days to illustrate my current life (no captions, no people). Nominate a person a day, asking to copy these words, add photo and repeat the challenge. Today I nominate [URL]” | This topic’s tweets are mainly a response to an online social media challenge that prompted Twitter users to post photographs that represent their lives. | Day, happy, life, every, word, today, best, hope, lovely, beautiful, birthday, wish, photo, person, picture, challenge, year, new, save, people, one, enjoy, posted, single, wonderful |
aWords are listed in order of their prevalence.