key: cord-1039534-r9ym1h3m
authors: Li, Yan; Zhang, Kai
title: Using social media for telemedicine during the COVID-19 epidemic
date: 2020-08-17
journal: Am J Emerg Med
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2020.08.007
sha: c5c2e71e96021ea608d5d9a9a94ca29fd9dc083e
doc_id: 1039534
cord_uid: r9ym1h3m

nan

measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic [1] [2] [3] . As the first country to discover COVID-19, China has taken strict precautionary measures. On January 23, 2020, China raised the national public health emergency level to the highest level [1] . These measures include closing schools and entertainment venues, prohibiting public gatherings, restricting access to and from the city, and so on. The Chinese government strives to raise public awareness of prevention and protection by providing daily monitoring and updates on websites and social media [4] . Nevertheless, COVID-19 is still a danger in China and other countries. Social media played an essential role during the COVID-19 epidemic. The government should support and encourage medical personnel to participate in science education on social media. Because the strict quarantine measures make it difficult for patients to see a doctor, it is urgent to establish an appropriate telemedicine and appointment system. At the same time, social media can also promote the development of telemedicine.

COVID-19 is officially a pandemic. Although the impact of the final course of COVID-19 is not yet fully determined, the disease is not only possible, but is likely to produce a serious disease, which may overwhelm the health care infrastructure. The emergence of the virus pandemic will make the public health system and community health service institutions face special and lasting epidemic prevention situation.

Government officials and policy makers should try their best to avoid the shortage of medical resources. The COVID-19 pandemic made us realize that if an outbreak in a region of the world is not properly handled, people around the world will be threatened [4, 5] .

The strict isolation strategies have affected and challenged different medical areas. In many countries, dentists were forced to stop working during quarantine until further discomfort and fear of the epidemic can also affect the psychological state of patients, leading to anxiety and anger [4, 7] . Some chronic otolaryngology diseases require long-term medication. Because some drugs are prescription drugs, they are not available in pharmacies. The lack of drugs and the pain of illness also increase the anxiety of patients [7] . In addition, the multidisciplinary treatment needs of suspected and diagnosed patients with COVID-19 pneumonia are challenging to meet.

Since there are very few telemedicine projects created temporarily, patients may have to pay. We think social media can solve this difficult problem, such as Facebook and 

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The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.