Assessing the validity of social media in fighting COVID-19 in Africa

Abstract The severe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global health, the economy, and society as a whole. To this effect, various measures both national and international were taken to respond to the pandemic. Among these measures was the rapid involvement of social media which played a vital role in the context of information dissemination, coordination of medical resources, promotion of public health campaigns, and population management and disease tracing. Besides these facilities put forward by social media, there were some weaknesses like misinformation, lack of guidance, and information leakage. Based on these numerous controversies brought about by social media during the pandemic periods, we aim to examine in this study the socio-economic effect of social media in the fight against Pandemics with particular attention on the case of the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa. Using Driscoll and Kraay's fixed effects and the Lewbel-2SLS estimators on 30 African countries, the results reveal that social media in Africa through the penetration rate of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube contribute significantly in disseminating COVID-19 in Africa. The findings equally reveal the mixed effect of other determinants of COVID-19 in this nexus. While Diabetes prevalence, the proportion of people aged 65 + , and population density contribute to the increased spread of the disease, GDP per capita and Hand Washing facilities instead prove a reducing effect of the disease. Sensitivity analysis reveals that this effect is homogenous for regional considerations of the overall sample. Based on this, appropriate suggestions are made to the various governments regarding the use of social media to prevent pandemics in the future.