Table 2.
Top 29a URLsb shared in COVID-19– and nicotine-related discussions on Twitter.
| URL description | Shares (N=21,100), n (%) |
| News24.com:lockdown dlamini zuma pushes for tobacco alcohol ban to continue until level 1 | 2827 (13.4) |
| The economist: smokers seem less likely than non smokers to fall ill with covid 19 | 2359 (11.2) |
| News24.com: coronavirus all the latest news about covid 19 in south africa and the world | 1854 (8.8) |
| Raw story: conservative radio host agrees with caller that vaping bleach might cure covid 19 youre not crazy | 878 (4.2) |
| The Guardian: French study suggests smokers at lower risk of getting coronavirus | 796 (3.8) |
| News24.com: breaking ramaphosa told to lift cigarette alcohol ban and move to level 2 lockdown sources | 694 (3.3) |
| rFi.fr: french researchers suggest nicotine could protect against covid 19 | 677 (3.2) |
| France24.com: france testing whether nicotine could prevent coronavirus 1 | 667 (3.2) |
| CNN: coronavirus quitting smoking wellness | 657 (3.1) |
| News 24: not selling booze and tobacco during lockdown harmful to addicts | 649 (3.1) |
| ewn.co.za: sa economy loses r1 5 billion due to alcohol cigarette sale ban | 631 (3.0) |
| Telegraph: smokers four times less likely contract covid 19 prompting nicotine/ | 620 (2.9) |
| News24.com: coronavirus all the latest news about covid 19 in south africa and the world | 584 (2.8) |
| Livemint.com: cigarette can keep coronavirus away researchers test if nicotine could prevent covid 19 | 557 (2.6) |
| Media Matters: Sean Hannity suggests vaping prevents people getting coronavirus | 491 (2.3) |
| Money Control: a cigarette a day can keep coronavirus away french researchers test if nicotine can prevent covid | 488 (2.3) |
| Bloomberg: coronavirus vaccine race gets unlikely partner big tobacco | 472 (2.2) |
| W24.co.za: How lockdown saved my life woman shares how she finally quit smoking after 20 years | 468 (2.2) |
| Scientific American: Smoking or vaping may increase the risk of a severe coronavirus infection | 461 (2.2) |
| CNN: coronavirus quitting smoking wellness | 461 (2.2) |
| The Guardian: french study suggests smokers at lower risk of getting coronavirus | 457 (2.2) |
| NDTV: coronavirus drug news france testing if nicotine prevents coronavirus from attaching to cells | 444 (2.1) |
| Nature: Factors associated with COVID-19-related death using OpenSAFELY | 435 (2.1) |
| The Guardian: Politics public covid 19 tobacco johnson | 431 (2.0) |
| CNN: coronavirus quitting smoking wellness | 423 (2.0) |
| Zerohedge.com: Did china steal coronavirus from canada and weaponize it | 409 (1.9) |
| Buzzfeed: smoking doesnt kill and other great old op eds from mike pence | 408 (1.9) |
| Medium: how i killed the smoke monster and quit smoking like a queen | 402 (1.9) |
| Todayistheday.co.uk/ (Resources for smoking cessation) | 400 (1.9) |
aThese 29 web articles accounted for 12.4% of shares among a total of 54,806 different URLs that were shared a combined total of 170,496 times.
bURL: Uniform Resource Locator.