Dataset Information

Twitter reveals human mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: The current COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns worldwide, leading to serious health, economic, and social challenges. The rapid spread of the virus at a global scale highlights the need for a more harmonized, less privacy-concerning, easily accessible approach to monitoring the human mobility that has proven to be associated with viral transmission. In this study, we analyzed over 580 million tweets worldwide to see how global collaborative efforts in reducing human mobility are reflected from the user-generated information at the global, country, and U.S. state scale. Considering the multifaceted nature of mobility, we propose two types of distance: the single-day distance and the cross-day distance. To quantify the responsiveness in certain geographic regions, we further propose a mobility-based responsive index (MRI) that captures the overall degree of mobility changes within a time window. The results suggest that mobility patterns obtained from Twitter data are amenable to quantitatively reflect the mobility dynamics. Globally, the proposed two distances had greatly deviated from their baselines after March 11, 2020, when WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. The considerably less periodicity after the declaration suggests that the protection measures have obviously affected people's travel routines. The country scale comparisons reveal the discrepancies in responsiveness, evidenced by the contrasting mobility patterns in different epidemic phases. We find that the triggers of mobility changes correspond well with the national announcements of mitigation measures, proving that Twitter-based mobility implies the effectiveness of those measures. In the U.S., the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility is distinct. However, the impacts vary substantially among states.

SUBMITTER: Huang X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7654838 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Twitter reveals human mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Huang Xiao X Li Zhenlong Z Jiang Yuqin Y Li Xiaoming X Porter Dwayne D

PloS one 20201110 11

The current COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns worldwide, leading to serious health, economic, and social challenges. The rapid spread of the virus at a global scale highlights the need for a more harmonized, less privacy-concerning, easily accessible approach to monitoring the human mobility that has proven to be associated with viral transmission. In this study, we analyzed over 580 million tweets worldwide to see how global collaborative efforts in reducing human mobility are reflected from th ...[more]

PMID: 33170889

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Project description:IntroductionThe Japanese government declared a state of emergency (SoE) to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the requirements of these SoE were less stringent than those in other nations. It has not been assessed whether soft containment policies were sufficiently effective in the promotion of social distancing or the reduction of human contact.MethodsMobility changes across different travel destinations, such as, (a) retail and recreation spaces; (b) supermarkets and pharmacies; (c) parks; (d) public transportation; (e) workplaces; and (f) residential areas, were analysed using the Google mobility index to assess social distancing behaviour in all Japanese prefectures between 15 February 2020 and 21 September 2021. The changes were evaluated through the utilisation of an interrupted time-series analysis after adjustment for seasonality and various prefecture-specific fixed-effects, and distinguishment of potential heterogeneity across multiple SoEs and the time that had passed after the declaration.ResultsThe mobility index for retail and recreation exhibited an immediate decline of 7.94 percent-points (95%CI: -8.77 to -7.12) after the declaration of the SoE, and a further decline after the initial period (beta: -1.27 95%CI: -1.43 to -1.11). However, it gradually increased by 0.03 percent-points (95%CI: 0.02-0.03). This trend was similar for mobility in other places. Among the four SoEs, the overall decline in human mobility outside the home was the least significant in the third and fourth SoE, which suggests that people were less compliant with social distancing measures during these periods.ConclusionsAlthough government responses to the pandemic may aid the controlling of human mobility outside the home, their effectiveness may decrease if these interventions are repeated and enforced for extended periods. A combination of these with other measures (i.e. risk-communication strategies) would enable even mild containment and closure policies to effectively curb the spread of the virus.

Dataset Information

Twitter reveals human mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publications

Twitter reveals human mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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