Since WHO first declared COVID-19 a public health emergency in 2020, scientific understanding of the virus and its characteristics has expanded rapidly, and as more information has been gathered, public health and social measures have had to be adjusted.1
Many national health authorities and media outlets issued daily scientific and status updates, as well as guidance on new policy measures and prevention approaches as they were introduced. While such information played a significant role in shaping public understanding and behaviours, the volume and velocity of information made it difficult for people to digest.2
As patients, family members, carers, health care professionals of all stripes, scientists, corporate managers, charities and community organizations, journalists and scores of essential workers, we turned to social media to share real-time experiences, to stay up-to-date, to understand the pandemic, and to discover what was happening around the world.
Concealed within this shift was a reliance on an emerging cadre of new ‘COVID-19 influencers’: individuals who helped drive such social media exchanges by identifying, interpreting and sharing new observations and key data points, analysing and commenting on emerging information, and helping fuel the debate on emerging pandemic policies and clinical practice.
The COVID-19 Influencers Social Media Awards shine a spotlight on an invaluable array of social media users – all influencers in their own context – recognizing the incredible contributions they made, and continue to make, to the collective understanding of the pandemic and responses around the world.
There are 7 awards categories:
Please, nominate your influencers!
