Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking
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Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw · Dec 2020
Smoking, Vaping, and Tobacco Industry During COVID-19 Pandemic: Twitter Data Analysis.
The reports suggesting a beneficial effect of nicotine on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity may encourage smoking. We aimed to analyze tweets on COVID-19 and smoking coming from casual Twitter users and Twitter accounts representing the tobacco industry. We collected tweets on COVID-19 and smoking from January 1 to May 1, 2020, using Twitter application programming interface. ⋯ The authors of potentially controversial articles should restrain from the promotion of their results before the completion of the peer-review process. Twitter presents a convenient tool to monitor e-discourse during a health crisis. The research community should monitor the tobacco industry's social media.