Understanding Health Communication Through Google Trends and News Coverage for COVID-19: Multinational Study in Eight Countries

Wai-kit Ming   ^{1, 2 *} , MD, MPH, MMSc, PhD ;   Fengqiu Huang   ^{2 *} , MPH ;   Qiuyi Chen   ^{3 *} , BA, MA ;   Beiting Liang   ^{4 *} , PhD ;   Aoao Jiao   ⁵ , BA ;   Taoran Liu   ¹ , BSc ;   Huailiang Wu   ⁶ , MD ;   Babatunde Akinwunmi   ⁷ , MM, MPH, MMSc, PhD ;   Jia Li   ⁶ , MA ;   Guan Liu   ⁸ , PhD ;   Casper J P Zhang   ⁹ , MPH, PhD ;   Jian Huang   ¹⁰ , MPH, PhD ;   Qian Liu   ^{3, 11} , MSc, PhD

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong)

² Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

³ School of Journalism and Communication, National Media Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

⁴ College of Economics, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

⁵ College of Economic and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China

⁶ International School, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

⁷ Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Armenia

⁸ Faculty of Computer Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

⁹ School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong)

¹⁰ MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, St Mary’s Campus, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

¹¹ Department of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, United States

*these authors contributed equally