China was the first country to identify COVID-19, but people didn’t know much about the virus in the early stages of the pandemic. To address this need for information, Cochrane China used the mobile telephone social media app WeChat to find out what doctors, nurses and members of the public wanted to know about COVID-19 and to share evidence with them.

Specifically, Cochrane China used WeChat to: advertise a survey to find out what doctors and nurses wanted to know about preventing and treating COVID-19, to invite volunteers to help them find evidence and translate it, and to keep in touch with people who were interested in their ongoing work.

• Learn more about what Cochrane China achieved by harnessing the power of social media during a pandemic, and what they learned in the process in this short case study.