Chapter 6. Emergency messaging and dangerous translations

Abstract

The early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic brought a wealth of communication challenges. Rapid public access to appropriate and accurate information was at the utmost importance, though greatly challenged by the rapidly changing nature of the emerging crisis. This chapter investigates key issues pertaining to Covid-19 emergency public health messaging and translatability. It is outlined how early Covid-19 discourse included novel vocabulary, previously unknown to the public. It is argued that effective community-wide emergency public health messaging requires careful consideration of these initial word choices, as the inclusion of novel terms can pose barriers for effective cross-translatability. This is because it is uncertain whether equivalents exist or will develop in other languages. Further, time constraints can lead to suboptimal translation practices, including the use of machine translation. In combination, this can lead to poor, and in the worst cases, dangerous translation outcomes. Ultimately, this chapter suggests that in times of crisis, authoring messages with translation in mind can foster better and more effective messaging outcomes.