Misinformation about spinal manipulation and boosting immunity: an analysis of Twitter activity during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Background: Social media has become an increasingly important tool in monitoring the onset and spread of infectious diseases globally as well monitoring the spread of information about those diseases. This includes the spread of misinformation, which has been documented within the context of the emerging COVID-19 crisis. Understanding the creation, spread and uptake of social media misinformation is of critical importance to public safety. In this descriptive study, we detail Twitter activity regarding spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) and claims it increases, or "boosts", immunity. Spinal manipulation is a common intervention used by many health professions, most commonly by chiropractors. There is no clinical evidence that SMT improves human immunity. Methods: Social media searching software (Talkwalker Quick Search) was used to describe Twitter activity regarding SMT and improving or boosting immunity. Searches were performed for the 3 months and 12 months before March 31, 2020 using terms related to 1) SMT, 2) the professions that most often provide SMT and 3) immunity. From these searches, we determined the magnitude and time course of Twitter activity then coded this activity into content that promoted or refuted a SMT/immunity link. Content themes, high-influence users and user demographics were then stratified as either promoting or refuting this linkage. Results: Twitter misinformation regarding a SMT/immunity link increased dramatically during the onset of the COVID crisis. Activity levels (number of tweets) and engagement scores (likes + retweets) were roughly equal between content promoting or refuting a SMT/immunity link, however, the potential reach (audience) of tweets refuting a SMT/immunity link was 3 times higher than those promoting a link. Users with the greatest influence on Twitter, as either promoters or refuters, were individuals, not institutions or organizations. The majority of tweets promoting a SMT/immunity link were generated in the USA while the majority of refuting tweets originated from Canada. Conclusion: Twitter activity about SMT and immunity increased during the COVID-19 crisis. Results from this work have the potential to help policy makers and others understand the impact of SMT misinformation and devise strategies to mitigate its impact.

The Role of Twitter During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Also, different people for different reasons and to advance their goals, make their followers distrustful of the government and official news about COVID-19, the method of treatment, and the mortality rate by providing false information that can lead to feelings of fear and ignoring the prevention methods offered by the government and reputable organizations (Odlum et al, 2020). Moreover, many tweets refer to treatment methods for COVID-19 for which there is no scientific evidence (Kawchuk et al, 2020).…”

Informed consent, duty of disclosure and chiropractic: where are we?

“…Due to the ICA COVID-19 reports, chiropractic associations and chiropractors around the world who either belong to the ICA or align with this ideology, claimed that patients should undergo spinal manipulation to help combat the COVID-19 virus [ 5 – 7 ]. Such irresponsible action places both themselves and the public at risk.…”

“…Doing otherwise is potentially dangerous to public health [ 17 ]. Professionalism is further demonstrated by collaborative research examining social media claims by chiropractors that chiropractic treatment can prevent or impact COVID-19 [ 5 , 6 ]. The results demonstrated alarmingly high and widespread misinformation by chiropractors.…”

“…The results demonstrated alarmingly high and widespread misinformation by chiropractors. These researchers urged all chiropractic stakeholders to view the COVID-19 pandemic as a call to action to eliminate the unethical, unsubstantiated and potentially dangerous claims made by chiropractors who practise outside the boundaries of scientific evidence [ 5 , 6 ]. Similarly, regulatory agencies advise it is vital that health practitioners only provide information about COVID-19 that is scientifically accurate and from authoritative sources, such as a state, territory or Commonwealth health department or the World Health Organization (WHO) [ 18 ].…”

Maslow’s hammer in integrative medicine: one size will never fit all

“…Many of these were often directly advocating use of ineffective, untested and sometimes dangerous treatments in place of public health treatments, even though the unprecedented global response on the frontline has been an effective tool for containing the virus SARS-CoV-2, and treating those acutely affected by its associated disease COVID-19. This is not a critique of the integrative medicine community as a whole – indeed, the integrative medicine community itself is often at the forefront of addressing these issues – examples of the naturopathic and Chinese medicine communities were provided in the last editorial, but similar leadership has been more recently observed from the chiropractic community in addressing misleading claims from some members of that chiropractic could boost immunity and protect patients from COVID-19 [ 2 ]. The integrative medicine community is also stepping up to this challenge – one integrative health organisation (the World Naturopathic Federation) has even taken leadership to address the issue of poor evidence on integrative medicine options by developing a collection of systematic evidence summaries which will be released shortly online and form the nexus of the next physical Advances issue.…”