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The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by a social media "infodemic": an overabundance of information whose authenticity may not always be guaranteed. With the potential to lead individuals to harmful decisions for the society, this infodemic represents a severe threat to information security, public health and democracy. In this paper, we assess the interplay between the infodemic and specific aspects of the pandemic, such as the number of cases, the strictness of containment measures, and the news media coverage. We perform a comparative study on three countries that employed different managements of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020—namely Italy, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. We first analyze the three countries from an epidemiological perspective to characterize the impact of the pandemic and the strictness of the restrictions adopted. Then, we collect a total of 6 million posts from Facebook to describe user news consumption behaviors with respect to the reliability of such posts. Finally, we quantify the relationship between the number of posts published in each of the three countries and the number of confirmed cases, the strictness of the restrictions adopted, and the online news media coverage about the pandemic. Our results show that posts referring to reliable sources are consistently predominant in the news circulation, and that users engage more with reliable posts rather than with posts referring to questionable sources. Furthermore, our modelling results suggest that factors related to the epidemiological and informational ecosystems can serve as proxies to assess the evolution of the infodemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) is an emergency associated with high peri-hospital mortality rates. Variable clinical presentation makes timely diagnosis challenging and such delays in diagnosis directly impact patient outcomes. Aims and objectives: The aims of the Collaborative Acute Aortic Syndrome Project (CAASP) are to characterise and evaluate the current AAS pathways of a cohort of hospitals in the UK, USA and New Zealand to determine if patient outcomes are influenced by the AAS pathway (time to hospital admission, diagnosis and management plan) and demographic, social, geographic and patient-specific factors (clinical presentation and comorbidities). The objectives are to describe different AAS pathways and time duration between hospital admission to diagnosis and management plan instigation, and to compare patient outcomes between pathways. Methods: The study is a multicentre, retrospective service evaluation project of adult patients diagnosed on imaging with AAS. It will be coordinated by the UK National Interventional Radiology Trainee Research (UNITE) network and Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN) in conjunction with The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust (TADCT). All AAS cases diagnosed on imaging between 1st January 2018 to 1st June 2021 will be included and followed-up for 6 months. Eligibility criteria include aortic dissection (AD) Type A, Type B, non A/B, penetrating aortic ulcer, and intramural haematoma. Exclusion criteria are non-AAS pathology, acute on chronic AAS, and age<18. This project will evaluate patient demographics, timing of presentation, patient symptoms, risk factors for AD, physical examination findings, timing to imaging and treatment, hospital stay, and mortality. Univariate and multivariate analysis will be used to identify predictors associated with prolonged time to diagnosis or treatment and mortality at 30 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]