COVID-19: INTRODUCING AN INDICATOR FOR THE 2ND WAVE.

INTRODUCING AN INDICATOR FOR THE 2ND WAVE.

Introducing an indicator for the 2nd wave. Public interest in COVID is declining in the US & Canada, & more rapidly in British Columbia.

After the introduction of COVID-19, public interest has increased in this topic. This survey aimed to assess the extent of public interest in COVID from Jan 2020 to Jun 20, 2020, in the US, Canada & BC.

Google Trends, an online tracking system for weekly Internet search volumes was used to extract the data (BCTOX https://bit.ly/3hPXtFF)

First, public interest in "COVID" increased in the US, Canada & BC. Later, and as the pandemic developed, the interest declined (Figure).

Second, the rate of decline in BC was faster than in Canada. Also, a different & rather opposite trend is developing in the US in the past few weeks.

Although the real reason isn’t clear, the decrease in the number of cases could have played a role, or the populations experience fatigue & gradually normalizing the disease.

Whatever the reason, it is alarming that the public is disengaging. The social empathy could be an indicator for the development of a second wave [more pronounced in BC].

Let's hope that health authorities & professionals will to keep the public engaged with #COVID effectively before the gap widens.