The 1918 influenza pandemic affected one-third of the world’s population and resulted in 50 million deaths. One hundred years ago, medical therapies and countermeasures were significantly limited, and information exchange that could facilitate any public health intervention primarily occurred by telephone, mail, or person-to-person interaction.
Now, more than a century later, a novel coronavirus is the cause of a new global pandemic threatening millions of lives.1 Today, many methods of sharing information have been subsumed by giant social media platforms that have incredible speed, reach, and penetration. More than 2.9 billion individuals use social media regularly, and many for long stretches of time.2