The ongoing, fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic requires individuals to regularly seek information about best health practices, local community spreading, and public health guidelines. In the absence of a unified response to the pandemic in the United States and clear, consistent directives from federal and local officials, people have used social media to collectively crowdsource COVID-19 elites, a small set of trusted COVID-19 information sources. We take a census of COVID-19 crowdsourced elites in the United States who have received sustained attention on Twitter during the pandemic. Using a mixed methods approach with a panel of Twitter users linked to public U.S. voter registration records, we find that journalists, media outlets, and political accounts have been consistently amplified around COVID-19, while epidemiologists, public health officials, and medical professionals make up only a small portion of all COVID-19 elites on Twitter. We show that COVID-19 elites vary considerably across demographic groups, and that there are notable racial, geographic, and political similarities and disparities between various groups and the demographics of their elites. With this variation in mind, we discuss the potential for using the disproportionate online voice of crowdsourced COVID-19 elites to equitably promote timely public health information and mitigate rampant misinformation.

中文翻译：

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美国 COVID-19 精英的持续在线放大

COVID-19 大流行的持续性、流动性要求个人定期寻求有关最佳健康做法、当地社区传播和公共卫生指南的信息。在美国缺乏对大流行的统一反应以及联邦和地方官员明确、一致的指示的情况下，人们使用社交媒体集体众包 COVID-19 精英，这是一小部分值得信赖的 COVID-19 信息来源。我们对美国的 COVID-19 众包精英进行了普查，这些精英在大流行期间在 Twitter 上受到了持续关注。使用与美国公共选民登记记录相关联的一组 Twitter 用户的混合方法，我们发现记者、媒体机构和政治账户在 COVID-19 前后一直被放大，而流行病学家，公共卫生官员和医疗专业人员仅占 Twitter 上所有 COVID-19 精英的一小部分。我们表明，COVID-19 精英在不同的人口群体之间差异很大，并且各个群体及其精英的人口统计数据之间存在显着的种族、地理和政治相似性和差异。考虑到这种变化，我们讨论了利用众包 COVID-19 精英不成比例的在线声音来公平地宣传及时的公共卫生信息并减少猖獗的错误信息的潜力。以及不同群体及其精英人口统计数据之间的政治相似性和差异。考虑到这种变化，我们讨论了利用众包 COVID-19 精英不成比例的在线声音来公平地宣传及时的公共卫生信息并减少猖獗的错误信息的潜力。以及不同群体及其精英人口统计数据之间的政治相似性和差异。考虑到这种变化，我们讨论了利用众包 COVID-19 精英不成比例的在线声音来公平地宣传及时的公共卫生信息并减少猖獗的错误信息的潜力。