COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights the Need for Teaching Health Communication to Public Health Students

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a deluge of scholarly publications and scientific outreach. Information about the novel coronavirus has spread rapidly through both traditional news and social media platforms. Timely scientific literature is paramount to public health, but it must be paired with nuanced and tailored outreach and messaging. Despite being a core public health competency, not all public health science students receive training in these skills. The media response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals a fundamental misunderstanding by the general public about the scientific process and cultivates a narrative that too often places blame on individuals for structural inequities. An influx of research without audience-appropriate interpretations, coupled with a lack of representation in the news media, threatens to erode trust in science. To address these challenges, schools and programs of public health might reflect on their curricula and consider placing a greater emphasis on health communication.

Media coverage of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Kenya and Tanzania: Content analysis of newspaper articles in East Africa

“…The point is, depending on the framing pattern, media coverage of Covid-19 has implications on audiences mental wellbeing (Zheng et al, 2020), financial market stability (Haroon & Rizvi, 2020), tourism sector (Yu et al, 2020), stress disorder on the people (Dong & Zheng, 2020), mitigating the spread of the disease (Liu et al, 2021) and above all have the likelihood of eroding trusts on the institution of science (Mandelbaum, 2020) and medical professionals (Motta et al, 2020).…”

“…While the coronavirus pandemic has generated a lot of news interest (Mahon, 2021) and scientific publication (Mandelbaum, 2020), much of the studies around mediated communication of the disease has been focussed and conducted in the western world and China. The role of the media and communicative discourse of the Covid-19 outbreak in Africa is missing, necessitating the need for such research to provide knowledge on how the continent is dealing with the pandemic.…”

Factors affecting consumer attitudes towards using digital media platforms on health knowledge communication: Findings of cognition–affect–conation pattern

“…Furthermore, some research has concluded that health promotion should be included as a core lesson in schools to tackle fake news which spread at a speed comparable to a virus replicating in the body. With this incorporation, public awareness of basic health and hygiene would be increased ( Mandelbaum, 2021 ). However, less research was found to focus on the distribution of health knowledge from the aspect of enterprises and consumers.…”

Small Organisms with Big Consequences: Understanding the Microbial World Around Us

“…The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has taught us that a general understanding of disease transmission and vaccines is vitally important for everyone, not just health professionals. The general public's lack of understanding about disease transmission (1) was compounded with active misinformation campaigns on the Internet (2)(3)(4), further highlighting the importance of microbiology education and critical thinking skills as an important tool for improving public health and wellness (5). Introductory biology classes, specifically those for non-majors for whom the course is likely to be their first and last exposure to the topic of biology at the college level, present an excellent opportunity to educate high school and collegelevel students about topics that will have a lasting impact on their lives, regardless of the career path they choose.…”