Baidu Index and COVID-19 Epidemic Forecast: Evidence From China

Fang, Jianchun; Zhang, Xinyi; Yang, Tong; Xia, Yuxin; Liu, Hui; Wu, Keke

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.685141

Cited by 34 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Relying on traditional laboratory and clinical data to publish weekly statistics for countries and regions usually results in a lag of 1-2 weeks (27). But our data showed that the popularly used Internet search engines, Baidu, and the social media platform, Sina Weibo, were able to predict the disease outbreak 6-19 days earlier than the traditional surveillance systems.…”

Section: Interpretations and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…But our data showed that the popularly used Internet search engines, Baidu, and the social media platform, Sina Weibo, were able to predict the disease outbreak 6-19 days earlier than the traditional surveillance systems. Big data monitoring of the epidemic can track the trends of infectious diseases and epidemics faster than traditional monitoring systems (27), which could buy time for controlling outbreaks of these diseases and reducing the risk of transmission to humans (37). This finding suggests that the government could build a tool for infectious disease surveillance based on BDI and SMI, which should be considered as supplementary to the traditional public health monitoring systems.…”

Section: Interpretations and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As representatives of current Chinese search engines and social networking platforms, their internet data are more valuable for monitoring China's first national public crisis since it entered the mobile social media era. Since COVID-19, researchers have used media reports (25), Google Trends (26), Weibo post counts, Baidu searches (27,28), and Ali indices (29,30) to study public attention and risk communication for COVID-19 epidemic management. But there has been no study of the Chinese public's response to COVID-19 using data such as BDI and SMI from the perspective of supply and demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of the Internet Platform in Monitoring Chinese Public Attention to the Outbreak of COVID-19

Gong

Hou

Han

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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ObjectivesThe internet data is an essential tool for reflecting public attention to hot issues. This study aimed to use the Baidu Index (BDI) and Sina Micro Index (SMI) to confirm correlation between COVID-19 case data and Chinese online data (public attention). This could verify the effect of online data on early warning of public health events, which will enable us to respond in a more timely and effective manner.MethodsSpearman correlation was used to check the consistency of BDI and SMI. Time lag cross-correlation analysis of BDI, SMI and six case-related indicators and multiple linear regression prediction were performed to explore the correlation between public concern and the actual epidemic.ResultsThe public's usage trend of the Baidu search engine and Sina Weibo was consistent during the COVID-19 outbreak. BDI, SMI and COVID-19 indicators had significant advance or lag effects, among which SMI and six indicators all had advance effects while BDI only had advance effects with new confirmed cases and new death cases. But compared with the SMI, the BDI was more closely related to the epidemic severity. Notably, the prediction model constructed by BDI and SMI can well fit new confirmed cases and new death cases.ConclusionsThe confirmed associations between the public's attention to the outbreak of COVID and the trend of epidemic outbreaks implied valuable insights into effective mechanisms of crisis response. In response to public health emergencies, people can through the information recommendation functions of social media and search engines (such as Weibo hot search and Baidu homepage recommendation) to raise awareness of available disease prevention and treatment, health services, and policy change.

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Section: Interpretations and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Interpretations and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Application of the Internet Platform in Monitoring Chinese Public Attention to the Outbreak of COVID-19

Gong

Hou

Han

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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show abstract

“…In this study, the novel coronavirus was used as the keyword, and the time span was from January 9, 2020 (when the pathogen was preliminarily determined to be COVID-19), to April 14, 2020 (when the ICU ward of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital announced that they had ’zero COVID-19 patients’; a monumental victory in the control of COVID-19) [ 35 , 36 ]. Based on the Baidu index, the spatial and temporal differences of and factors that influence the novel coronavirus attention network were analysed, and the spreading trend and severity of the epidemic in various provinces in China were determined to scientifically and accurately assess the form of the national epidemic and provide a basis for promoting the precise prevention and control of the epidemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal characteristics of the novel coronavirus attention network and its influencing factors in China

Guo

2021

PLoS ONE

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The outbreak of a novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), wherein more than 200 million people have been infected and millions have died, poses a great threat to achieving the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goal (SDGs). Based on the Baidu index of ’novel coronavirus’, this paper analyses the spatial and temporal characteristics of and factors that influenced the attention network for COVID-19 from January 9, 2020, to April 15, 2020. The study found that (1) Temporally, the attention in the new coronavirus network showed an upward trend from January 9 to January 29, with the largest increase from January 23 to January 29 and a peak on January 29, and then a slow downward trend. The level of attention in the new coronavirus network was basically flat when comparing January 22 and March 4. (2) Spatially, first, from the perspective of regional differences, the network attention in the eastern and central regions decreased in turn. The network users in the eastern region exhibited the highest attention to the new coronavirus, especially in Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu and other provinces and cities. The network attention in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Ningxia in the western region was the lowest in terms of the national network attention. Second, from the perspective of interprovincial differences, the attention in the new coronavirus network was highly consistent with the Hu Huanyong line of China’s population boundary. The east of the Hu Huanyong line is densely populated, and the network showed high concern, mostly ranking at the third to fifth levels. (3) The number of Internet users in the information technology field, the population, and the culture and age characteristics of individuals are important factors that influence the novel coronavirus attention network.

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“…Mertens ( 6 ) utilizes 20 years of German manufacturing microdata to explore the reasons for the global decline in labor's share of economic output, arguing that the firms' market power in labor and products explains half of the decline in labor shares. Elsayed et al ( 7 – 9 ) discussed economic uncertainty, COVID-19, and labor market regulations. Chen et al ( 10 – 13 ) also examined the effects of conflict, social mobility and stringency measures on COVID-19 and the economy.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the Market Power of China's Medical Product Exports

Zhang

Huang

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical products have been crucial to the global fight against the disease. As a major manufacturing country, China occupies an important position in the medical products field. However, China's terms of trade are not commensurate with its status as a major exporter of medical products. Therefore, studying China's market power in medical product exports has important practical significance for determining China's value chain position in the global market and then proposing policies and measures to enhance China's market power. The findings of this paper, utilizing HS 6-digit data from 1992 to 2020, illustrate that China's market power is only in limited medical product export markets. Accordingly, we propose countermeasures to enhance the market power of China's medical product exports.

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Baidu Index and COVID-19 Epidemic Forecast: Evidence From China

Cited by 34 publications

References 18 publications

Application of the Internet Platform in Monitoring Chinese Public Attention to the Outbreak of COVID-19

Application of the Internet Platform in Monitoring Chinese Public Attention to the Outbreak of COVID-19

Spatio-temporal characteristics of the novel coronavirus attention network and its influencing factors in China

Measuring the Market Power of China's Medical Product Exports

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