BACKGROUND: The internet has become an important source of health information for users worldwide. The novel Coronavirus caused a pandemic search for information with broad dissemination of false or misleading health information. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online information about Wuhan Coronavirus (actually COVID-19), which was a trending topic in the net, using validated instruments and relate the quality of information to its readability. METHODS: The search was based on the term Wuhan Coronavirus on the Google website (6 February 2020). At the search time, the terms "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2" did not exist yet. Critical analysis was performed on the first 110 hits using HON code, JAMA benchmark, DISCERN instrument, and Google rank. RESULTS: The Google search returned 309,000,000 hits. The first 110 websites were critically analyzed, and only 1.81% of the websites had the HON code seal. The JAMA benchmark showed that 39% of websites did not have any of the categories required by this tool and only 10% of the websites had the 4 quality criteria required by JAMA. The DISCERN score showed that 70% of the websites were evaluated as low score and none one was rated as high score. CONCLUSIONS: Non-health personnel and the scientific community need to be aware of the quality of the information they read and produce respectively. The Wuhan Coronavirus health crisis misinformation was produced by the media and the misinformation the users obtain from the net. The use of the internet has a risk to public health and in cases like this; the governments should be developing strategies to regulate health information in the internet without censuring the population. By February 6, no quality information was available in the internet about COVID-19.
download 🔖 [BibTeX]