KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — After President Donald Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19, social media exploded with people responding to the information.
The Adam Brown Social Media Command Center at the University of Tennessee tracked people's responses to the news and measured trends in the conversation around the announcement.
They began by looking into the number of people talking about Hope Hicks, a former White House Communications Director who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. They said that over 200,000 tweets were posted about her on Thursday.
They also found that in the 12 hours since news broke about Hicks testing positive, the conversation changed to the news that President Trump tested positive for the coronavirus. By 1 a.m. Friday morning mentions of President Trump and COVID-19 spiked. Users made over 300,000 posts within the first hour, according to researchers.
They said that most people expressed negative sentiment towards Hope Hicks, driven by frustration that the president attended a fundraiser after she tested positive.
By 12 p.m. officials at the center said that 2.3 million posts were made about President Trump testing positive for the coronavirus. They said they also saw a steady increase throughout the day as people across the U.S. woke up to the news.
By then, they said the conversation was turning away from frustration with President Trump attending the fundraiser towards death totals and conspiracy theories.
They also noted that the word "witch" appeared in their research, referencing "Witch Twitter." Researchers said that jokes spread over social media over President Trump testing positive for COVID-19 on the first full moon of October.