Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, social media posts related to the virus from neurology influencers increased significantly, with content peaking in April, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s Neurology Influencer database there were only three COVID-19 posts made by neurology influencers for both January and February, which increased to 95 in March. A peak of 145 tweets related to COVID-19 was seen in April from Neurology Influencers, with a decrease in May to 87 posts.

Kathryn Whitney, MSc, Director of Thematic Analysis, comments: “One of the main topics that neurology influencers discussed was stroke and COVID-19. In January and February, no posts relating to this topic were seen from the influencers, while in March just 7% of tweets mentioned stroke.”

Whitney continues: “However, in April, stroke was the top trending keyword for COVID-19–related posts, seen in almost 21% of posts. In May, stroke was the third highest trending keyword, and was found in almost 14% of posts.”

Many of the posts in April highlighted the dangers of not seeking acute care with stroke symptoms because of fear of contracting COVID-19 in hospitals and emergency departments. Other posts discussed the increased incidence of stroke in young COVID-19 patients with no previous risk factors.

Whitney concludes: “It has been widely reported that the numbers of patients attending hospitals seeking acute care for stroke and heart attack symptoms have dropped significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Many people are fearful of contracting the virus in hospital, or do not want to burden already overstretched healthcare systems. This unfortunately is leading to an increase in the numbers of people presenting too late and dying unnecessarily from these conditions. Healthcare systems have plans in place to treat these patients and they should not delay in seeking appropriate and timely care.”