Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

September 10, 2020

Geospatial Correlation between COVID-19 Health Misinformation and Poisoning with Household Cleaners in the Greater Boston Area

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• Public health efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were followed by a sustained increase in calls to the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island (MARI PCC) regarding exposure to household cleaners. Misinformation on social media was associated with intermittent spikes in calls. Overall, calls significantly increased during the study period by 34% as compared to the previous 8 years, mostly reporting unintentional ingestions with no serious effects. The daily volume of tweets and retweets was significantly correlated with daily call rates to MARI PCC for the surrounding 7-10 days.

Chary et al. (Sept 9, 2020). Geospatial Correlation between COVID-19 Health Misinformation and Poisoning with Household Cleaners in the Greater Boston Area. Clinical Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15563650.2020.1811297