Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines
ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE Assess the correlation between the sales of two drugs with no proven efficacy against covid-19, ivermectin and chloroquine, and other relevant variables, such as Google® searches, number of tweets related to these drugs, number of cases and deaths resulting from covid-19. METHO...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade de São Paulo
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Revista de Saúde Pública |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102024000100205&lng=en&tlng=en |
| _version_ | 1797293961202630656 |
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| author | Irineu de Brito Junior Flaviane Azevedo Saraiva Nathan de Campos Bruno Roberto Fray da Silva Celso Mitsuo Hino Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki |
| author_facet | Irineu de Brito Junior Flaviane Azevedo Saraiva Nathan de Campos Bruno Roberto Fray da Silva Celso Mitsuo Hino Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki |
| author_sort | Irineu de Brito Junior |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE Assess the correlation between the sales of two drugs with no proven efficacy against covid-19, ivermectin and chloroquine, and other relevant variables, such as Google® searches, number of tweets related to these drugs, number of cases and deaths resulting from covid-19. METHODS The methodology adopted in this study has four stages: data collection, data processing, exploratory data analysis, and correlation analysis. Spearman’s method was used to obtain cross-correlations between each pair of variables. RESULTS The results show similar behaviors between variables. Peaks occurred in the same or near periods. The exploratory data analysis showed shortage of chloroquine in the period corresponding to the beginning of advertising for the application of these drugs against covid-19. Both drugs showed a high and statistically significant correlation with the other variables. Also, some of them showed a higher correlation with drug sales when we employed a one-month lag. In the case of chloroquine, this was observed for the number of deaths. In the case of ivermectin, this was observed for the number of tweets, cases, and deaths. CONCLUSIONS The results contribute to decision making in crisis management by governments, industries, and stores. In times of crisis, as observed during the covid-19 pandemic, some variables can help sales forecasting, especially Google® and tweets, which provide a real-time analysis of the situation. Monitoring social media platforms and search engines would allow the determination of drug use by the population and better prediction of potential peaks in the demand for these drugs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:23:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c09f8ff41b8e4ee88fbdaeaf0ac0df37 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1518-8787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:23:18Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Universidade de São Paulo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Revista de Saúde Pública |
| spelling | doaj.art-c09f8ff41b8e4ee88fbdaeaf0ac0df372024-02-27T07:42:01ZengUniversidade de São PauloRevista de Saúde Pública1518-87872024-02-015810.11606/s1518-8787.2024058005413Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search enginesIrineu de Brito Juniorhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2977-6905Flaviane Azevedo Saraivahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2375-5604Nathan de Campos Brunohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6567-8918Roberto Fray da Silvahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9792-0553Celso Mitsuo Hinohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2594-6519Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizakihttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9723-1918ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE Assess the correlation between the sales of two drugs with no proven efficacy against covid-19, ivermectin and chloroquine, and other relevant variables, such as Google® searches, number of tweets related to these drugs, number of cases and deaths resulting from covid-19. METHODS The methodology adopted in this study has four stages: data collection, data processing, exploratory data analysis, and correlation analysis. Spearman’s method was used to obtain cross-correlations between each pair of variables. RESULTS The results show similar behaviors between variables. Peaks occurred in the same or near periods. The exploratory data analysis showed shortage of chloroquine in the period corresponding to the beginning of advertising for the application of these drugs against covid-19. Both drugs showed a high and statistically significant correlation with the other variables. Also, some of them showed a higher correlation with drug sales when we employed a one-month lag. In the case of chloroquine, this was observed for the number of deaths. In the case of ivermectin, this was observed for the number of tweets, cases, and deaths. CONCLUSIONS The results contribute to decision making in crisis management by governments, industries, and stores. In times of crisis, as observed during the covid-19 pandemic, some variables can help sales forecasting, especially Google® and tweets, which provide a real-time analysis of the situation. Monitoring social media platforms and search engines would allow the determination of drug use by the population and better prediction of potential peaks in the demand for these drugs.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102024000100205&lng=en&tlng=enSocial MediaChloroquineIvermectinCovid-19Search EngineInfodemicPandemicSARS-CoV-2 |
| spellingShingle | Irineu de Brito Junior Flaviane Azevedo Saraiva Nathan de Campos Bruno Roberto Fray da Silva Celso Mitsuo Hino Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines Revista de Saúde Pública Social Media Chloroquine Ivermectin Covid-19 Search Engine Infodemic Pandemic SARS-CoV-2 |
| title | Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines |
| title_full | Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines |
| title_fullStr | Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines |
| title_short | Inefficacious drugs against covid-19: analysis of sales, tweets, and search engines |
| title_sort | inefficacious drugs against covid 19 analysis of sales tweets and search engines |
| topic | Social Media Chloroquine Ivermectin Covid-19 Search Engine Infodemic Pandemic SARS-CoV-2 |
| url | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102024000100205&lng=en&tlng=en |
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