1st Wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan

People turn to search engines and social media to seek information during
population-level events, such as during civil unrest, disease outbreaks, fires, or flood.
They also tend to participate in discussions and disseminate information and opinions
via social media forums, and smartphone messaging applications. COVID-19 pandemic
was not any different. However, the proper medical awareness and correct information
dissemination is critical during a pandemic. An unprecedented amount of internet traffic
related to this topic was generated during the start of the pandemic all over the world.
In this work, we have analysed the electronic data generated by users from Pakistan
on Google Search Engine and WhatsApp to understand their information-seeking
behavior during the first wave of the pandemic. The paper aims at analysing how the
Pakistani public developed their understanding about the disease, (its origin, cures, and
preventive measures to name a few) by analysing digital data. We found that the public
actively searched and discussed information at the start of the pandemic. However,
their interest waned with time and was reinvigorated only when something novel or
shocking seemed to have occurred. Understanding this information seeking behavior will
allow corrective actions to be taken by health policymakers to better inform the public
for possible future waves of a pandemic through electronic media, as well as and the
social media companies and search engines to address misinformation among the users
in the emergent markets.