Communicating Covid

Dr. Borrell’s issues are social impact and communication media

Impactful headlines, but lessened by what people now appreciate. | Gemma Andreu

Andrew EdePalma14/01/2022 09:40

D r. Carme Borrell is a specialist in public health and is also a member of something known as the network of scientific communicators. She is critical of how decisions have been communicated over the course of the pandemic, citing “partisan” use that has obscured coherent messaging, and she has also set out key issues that now need to be addressed.

The pandemic has always been as much about the psychology and the social as it has the medical. In this regard, Covid has passed through different iterations in terms of virology and how this is conveyed - or should be. The past of Covid is the past. The present is most definitely different, and among Dr. Borrell’s issues are social impact and communication media.

The latter feeds this impact, which is why she is critical of what can appear to be alarmism at a time when so many infections are either asymptomatic or mild.

A different source, a journalist writing about next week’s Fitur tourism fair in Madrid, argues that as tourism seeks recovery and a return to normality (even comparatively), it can do without the likes of headlines blaring out that 50% of people are going to contract Covid.

Such headlines are not going to go away, and while they will indeed have a social impact, is it now also the case that people are more savvy in their response to communications? They understand risk in ways they couldn’t have two years ago. Impactful headlines, but lessened by what people now appreciate.