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?:abstract
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BACKGROUND: In the context of the COVID-19 infodemic, the global profusion of tangled monikers and hashtags has found their ways in daily communication and contributed to a backlash against Chinese and diaspora OBJECTIVE: This study examined public engagement in the crisis communication about COVID-19 during the early epidemic stage and the practical strategy of social mobilization to mitigate the infodemic METHODS: We retrieved the unbiased values of search interest on the top of the ranks between 30 December 2019 and 15 July 2020, which normalized the anonymized, categorized and aggregated samples from Google search data The study exemplified the most-searched interest, including the official portfolio, the stigmatized agents and other controls, to measure the collective behavioural propensities to stigmatized agents and explore the global reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic in the real world We calculated the ratio of the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases to the regional population as the cumulative rate (R) of a specific country or territory, and introduced the Gini coefficient (G) to measure the collective heterogeneity of crowd behavior RESULTS: People around the globe are divided in their favour stigmatized agents across Google search but were earlier than the official portfolio Many stigmatized monikers against Chinese (e g , \'Wuhan pneumonia\' (G, 0 73), \'Wuhan coronavirus\' (G, 0 60), \'China pneumonia\' (G, 0 59), \'China coronavirus\' (G, 0 52), \'Chinese coronavirus\' (G, 0 50)) have been enjoyed high collective heterogeneity of crowd behavior between 30 December 2019 and 15 July 2020, while the official portfolio \'COVID-19\' (G, 0 44) and \'SARS-CoV-2\' (G, 0 42) has not become de facto standard usages Moreover, the substantial pattern of the high consistent consumption is observed in the 13 typical territories with low cumulative rates (R) between 16 January and 15 July 2020, out of 58 countries and territories that have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 In the scientific literature, multifarious naming practices might provoke unintended negative impacts by stigmatizing Chinese people WHO, UNESCO and the media initiated the campaign of fighting back against the COVID-19 infodemic with the same mission but in diverse voices CONCLUSIONS: Infodemiological analysis promises to articulate that collective propensities to stigmatized monikers across search behaviours may reflect the collective sentiment of backlash against Chinese and diaspora in real world The full-fledged official portfolio is excepted to duly contribute to the resilience of negative perceptual bias amidst the COVID-19 epidemic Such official naming efforts against infodemic should be met with a fair share of identification in scientific conventions and sociocultural paradigms As an integral component of preparedness, appropriate nomenclatures should be duly assigned to the newly identified coronavirus and social mobilization in uniform voice is a high priority for combating the next infodemic
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