Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of Data Mining and Beyond

Abstract: The global health crisis of COVID-19 has ushered in an era of unprecedented data generation, encompassing the virus’s transmission patterns, societal consequences, and governmental responses. Data mining has emerged as a pivotal tool for extracting invaluable insights from this voluminous dataset, offering critical support for informed decision-making. While existing surveys primarily explore methodologies for detecting COVID-19 in medical imagery and official sources, this article comprehensively examines the pandemic through big data mining. We emphasize the significance of social network analysis, shedding light on the pandemic’s profound influence on community socio-economic behavior. Additionally, we illuminate advancements in diverse domains, encompassing behavioral impact analysis on social media, contact tracing implications, early disease screening through medical imaging, and insights derived from health-related time-series data analytics. Our study further organizes the literature by categorizing it based on data sources, dataset types, analytical approaches, techniques, and application scenarios. Finally, we delineate prevailing challenges and forthcoming research prospects, charting the course for future investigations. Graphical abstract: (Figure presented.)