{"id":2483002,"date":"2020-12-07T14:15:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2483002"},"modified":"2020-12-08T08:44:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T13:44:09","slug":"covid-19-public-health-communication-2483002-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/covid-19-public-health-communication-2483002-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it’s hard to get people to take COVID seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, Holley Wilkin discusses the importance of effective public health messaging and why it’s been largely ineffective at flattening the curve.<\/p>\n
Slowing the spread of COVID-19, a disease that has so far killed more than 250,000 Americans, requires mass-scale shifts in behavior.<\/p>\n
Persuading the public to stay home, practice social distancing, wear a mask<\/a>, or eventually get a vaccine is largely reliant on effective communications, says Wilkin<\/a>, associate professor of communication at Georgia State.<\/p>\n “First, you have to convince people that the virus is a threat that needs to be taken seriously,” says Wilkin. “Then you have to convince them that these changes will work to protect themselves<\/a> and other people in their family or community.”<\/p>\n That has proven difficult, at least in America, where conspiracy theories about COVID-19 abound and public response to the pandemic has become deeply polarized among partisan lines.<\/p>\n Here, Wilkin explains what the events of 2020 have revealed about the importance of health education and communication:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, Holley Wilkin discusses the importance of effective public health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10552,"featured_media":2483042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[581,185622,2154],"class_list":["post-2483002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health-medicine","tag-communication","tag-covid-19","tag-united-states","post_format-post-format-quote","university-georgia-state-university"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n