  Purpose: Public attitudes towards COVID-19 and social distancing are critical
in reducing its spread. It is therefore important to understand public
reactions and information dissemination in all major forms, including on social
media. This article investigates important issues reflected on Twitter in the
early stages of the public reaction to COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: A
thematic analysis of the most retweeted English-language tweets mentioning
COVID-19 during March 10-29, 2020. Findings: The main themes identified for the
87 qualifying tweets accounting for 14 million retweets were: lockdown life;
attitude towards social restrictions; politics; safety messages; people with
COVID-19; support for key workers; work; and COVID-19 facts/news. Research
limitations/implications: Twitter played many positive roles, mainly through
unofficial tweets. Users shared social distancing information, helped build
support for social distancing, criticised government responses, expressed
support for key workers, and helped each other cope with social isolation. A
few popular tweets not supporting social distancing show that government
messages sometimes failed. Practical implications: Public health campaigns in
future may consider encouraging grass roots social web activity to support
campaign goals. At a methodological level, analysing retweet counts emphasised
politics and ignored practical implementation issues. Originality/value: This
is the first qualitative analysis of general COVID-19-related retweeting.
