Table 2 Characteristics of qualitative included studies related to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and theories
References | Country | Study Design | Sampling method | Sample characteristics | Measurements of Conspiracy | Conspiracy findings | Main findings of conspiracy theories prevalence | Study quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Islam et al. [17] | Multisite | Retrospective | Retrospectively collected COVID-19–related infodemic reports from online media platforms | N = 2311 reports related to COVID-19 infodemic in 25 languages from 87 countries a wide range of sources, including fact-checking agency websites, Facebook, Twitter, websites for television networks, and newspapers | Conspiracy theory defined as any statement, claim, and discussion of various theories related to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and its malicious goals | One of the theories suggested that COVID-19 was a bioweapon and had been engineered by international agencies Multiple countries manufactured and spread the deadly coronavirus in China as part of an economic and psychological war against China | Among 2,311 reports, 182 (7.8%) were related to conspiracy theories | Moderate |
Ahmed et al. [45] | Multisite | Cross-sectional | A 2-day period using the hashtag # 5Gcoronavirus | N = 6556 Twitter users | The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory that argued that COVID-19 is caused by 5G | The majority of influential users tweeting about 5G, and COVID-19 consisted of members of the public sharing their views and opinions or news articles and videos supporting their cause | Of the 233 sample tweets, 34.8% (n = 81) of individual tweets contained views that 5G and COVID-19 were linked, 32.2% (n = 75) denounced the conspiracy theory. 65.2% (n = 152) of tweets derived from non-conspiracy theory supporters, which suggests that, although the topic attracted high volume, only a handful of users genuinely believed the conspiracy | Moderate |
Havey [46] | USA | Cross-sectional | A one-week period using the Twitter API | N = 4000 tweets related to six misinformation topics about the COVID-19 pandemic | The use of hydroxychloroquine as treatment, the use of bleach as a preventative measure, Bill Gates intentionally causing the virus, the Chinese Communist Party intentionally causing the virus, and the Deep State causing the virus to ruin the economy and threaten President Trump’s re-election chances | Conservative Twitter users are driving the conversation around these misinformation topics | Tweets about hydroxychloroquine, Bill Gates, and bleach were about half neutral (44.8, 49.6, and 50%, respectively; neutral tweets are largely informative tweets that either reshare information or a link with minimal comment). Tweets about 5G were overwhelmingly neutral (71.5%), and qualitative review of this tweet corpus indicates that most of these tweets were sharing information about 5G connectivity or sharing links to information debunking the idea that 5G was “triggering the virus.” The nonneutral tweets for hydroxychloroquine, Bill Gates, bleach, and 5G were more negative than positive. Finally, tweets about the Deep State and the “Chinese Communist Party Virus” (CCPV) were predominantly negative (47.4% and 91.2%, respectively) | High |
Li et al. [48] | USA | Cross-sectional | A 13-day period using the Twitter API | N = 500 tweets per day were collected from 31 December 2019 through 25 February 2020 and N = 18,000 tweets per day from 26 February to 13 March 2020 | Conspiracy theory defined as any statement, claim, and discussion of various theories related to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 | Tweets with conspiracy theories were more likely include group labelling and responsibility information, but less likely to mention the peril of COVID-19 | 4.21% of the tweets included misinformation about COVID-19 and 2.00% of tweets mentioned at least one COVID-19 conspiracy theories | Moderate |
Quinn et al. [52] | Canada | Cross-sectional | A 10-day period using the hashtags #hoax and #plandemic, Instagram | N = 463 posts | Conspiracy theory defined as any statement, claim, and discussion of various theories related to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 | Conspiracy theories were among the top five-most common broad themes | 29.1% of the posts mentioned at least one COVID-19 conspiracy theories (n = 135/463) | Moderate |
Atehortua and Patino [53] | USA | Cross-sectional | Convenience of publicly available messages from most popular digital platforms, i.e., Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, | N = 342 posts or messages | Conspiracy theory defined as any statement, claim, and discussion of various theories related to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 | Two-thirds of the messages were suspected to disseminate conspiracy theories | 27.1% of the posts mentioned at least one COVID-19 conspiracy theories (n = 93/342) | Moderate |