This study likely underestimates the true reach of Twitter as these G7 members’ tweets could have been viewed without ‘liking’ them or even needing an account.

In-depth analysis of the reach of these tweets is beyond the remit of this study.

Usual bias within thematic analysis by a single analyst

study only included tweets with the keywords ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’ to maintain a focused search. It is however possible that some relevant tweets were missed if they did not specifically include these words.

The threshold of 500 likes to qualify as a viral tweet was an arbitrary one determined a priori in the absence of a strict definition from the literature, albeit it resulted in a good range of data across all included G7 member nations.