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Background: Our study investigates how general surgery residency programs utilized social media to adapt to the challenges of COVID-19. Methods: 319 participating general surgery residency programs provided by the Electronic Residency Application Service were analyzed in this study. Associated Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts were assessed to find virtual open houses and externships. Results: Of the 319 program, 188 (59%) were found to have a social media presence. A total of 348 social media accounts were found, as some of the programs had separate residency and department accounts. Of all the social media accounts, 112 (32%) of the accounts were created after March 1, 2020. Virtual open houses opportunities were found to be advertised across all platforms. Conclusion: Many general surgery programs responded to the physical limitations of COVID-19 pandemic by increasingly utilizing social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual opportunities should be considered as a novel approach for future outreach and recruitment.

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UNSTRUCTURED Our team's article serves as a response to Neely and colleagues' recent paper: Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study, wherein we provide additional information, challenge certain viewpoints, and provide future insight on the topic of how social media is influencing COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the original article suggests that social media serves as a determinant to COVID-19 vaccination rates in some respects, we provide novel perspective that suggests that the opposite outcome may be occurring. Additionally, our team proposes that the question at hand needs to be addressed by an alternative methodology to more accurately capture the magnitude of social media and its members, rather than a survey type model. Our team congratulates Neely and associates' work and addition to the ever-growing topic of social media in medicine, and we seek to provide additional viewpoints and suggestions in an effort to better understand the current COVID-19 landscape.

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