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. 2020 Jun;34(3):389-396.
doi: 10.1111/fcp.12564.

Genesis of an emergency public drug information website by the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics during the COVID-19 pandemic

Louis Larrouquere  1 , Manon Gabin  1 , Emmanuelle Poingt  1 , Amelle Mouffak  1 , Alex Hlavaty  1 , Marion Lepelley  1 , Charles Khouri  1 , Alexandre Bellier  1 , Joachim Alexandre  2 , Pierrick Bedouch  1 , Laurent Bertoletti  3 , Regis Bordet  4 , Béatrice Bouhanick  5 , Annie-Pierre Jonville-Bera  6 , Silvy Laporte  3 , Claire Le Jeunne  7 , Louis Letinier  8 , Joëlle Micallef  9 , Florian Naudet  10 , Matthieu Roustit  1 , Mathieu Molimard  8 , Vincent Richard  11 , Jean-Luc Cracowski  1
Affiliations

Genesis of an emergency public drug information website by the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics during the COVID-19 pandemic

Louis Larrouquere et al. Fundam Clin Pharmacol. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

On March 16, 2020, the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics put online a national Question and Answer (Q&A) website, https://sfpt-fr.org/covid19 on the proper use of drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The working group 'Drugs and COVID-19' was composed of a scientific council, an editorial team, and experts in the field. The first questions were posted online during the first evening of home-confinement in France, March 17, 2020. Six weeks later, 140 Q&As have been posted. Questions on the controversial use of hydroxychloroquine and to a lesser extent concerning azithromycin have been the most consulted Q&As. Q&As have been consulted 226 014 times in 41 days. This large visibility was obtained through an early communication on Twitter, Facebook, traditional print, and web media. In addition, an early communication through the French Ministry of Health and the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety ANSM had a large impact in terms of daily number of views. There is a pressing need to sustain a public drug information service combining the expertise of scholarly pharmacology societies, pharmacovigilance network, and the Ministry of Health to quickly provide understandable, clear, expert answers to the general population's concerns regarding COVID-19 and drug use and to counter fake news.

Keywords: COVID-19; pharmacology; public drug information; public health.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative number of views of the 140 questions and answers from March 19, 2020, to April 28, 2020. Only the 10 most viewed questions and answers were kept in the graph legend.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total daily views of the questions and answers from March 19, 2020, to April 28, 2020. Weekends are colored light blue. Arrows indicate the impact of media coverage and the French Ministry of health.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Individual daily views of question and answer (Q&A) #001 from March 19, 2020, to April 28, 2020, showing the general trend of website traffic for a single question.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Individual daily views of questions and answers #018, #019, #036 from March 19, 2020, to April 28, 2020, showing the influence of drug information spread on social networks and web, print and TV media.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Individual daily views of questions and answers #121, #126, #005 #136 from March 19, 2020, to April 28, 2020. Arrows indicate the high impact of web communication by The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT), the French Ministry of Health, French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety ANSM, and media coverage of our website.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Ministère des solidarités et de la santé Français . Réponses à vos questions sur les médicaments pendant la crise du COVID‐19. 2020. http://solidarites‐sante.gouv.fr/soins‐et‐maladies/maladies/maladies‐inf....
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