COMMENTARY: 8 things US pandemic communicators still get wrong

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Source: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-per...ngs-us-pandemic-communicators-still-get-wrong


COMMENTARY: 8 things US pandemic communicators still get wrong
Filed Under:
COVID-19
Peter M. Sandman, PhD
| Dec 09, 2021

As we approach 2 years of COVID-19, US pandemic messaging has settled into some counterproductive patterns. I want to address eight of these risk communication mistakes that public health officials and experts keep making. Turning them around can rebuild trust and help save lives.

In August 2020, CIDRAP published my commentary titled, "Public health's share of the blame: US COVID-19 risk communication failures." I tracked what I saw—and still see—as a series of missteps by public health officials in the early months of the pandemic:

1. Over-reassuring the public
2. Panicking and overreacting
3. Flubbing the rationale for lockdowns
4. Abandoning "flatten the curve"
5. Insisting that public health should be in charge

Except for misstep 5, which is still super important, this list of risk communication mistakes now reads like ancient history. It's hard to remember back that far...