Ratzan Scott C, Sommariva Silvia, Rauh Lauren
CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York, US; Editor in Chief, Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives;
College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, US.
Public Health Res Pract. 2020 Jun 30;30(2):3022010. doi: 10.17061/phrp3022010.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The understanding and practice of public health crisis communication are improved through the study of responses to past crises, but require retooling for present challenges. The 'Addressing Ebola and other outbreaks' checklist contains guiding principles built upon maxims developed from a World Health Organization consultation in response to the mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis that were later adopted for Ebola. The purpose of this article is to adapt the checklist for the health communication challenges and public health practices that have emerged during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The communication challenges of promoting vaccine acceptance are used to illustrate a key area that requires strengthened communication. Type of program or service: Effective communication principles for application during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unique challenges for public health practitioners and health communicators that warrant an expansion of existing health communication principles to take into consideration: the new infodemic (or mis/disinfodemic) challenge - particularly as treatments and vaccines are being developed; communication of risk and uncertainty; health-information behaviours and the instantaneous nature of social media, and the relationship between media literacy and health literacy; the effects of the pandemic on other health issues; and the need for a flexible communication strategy that adapts to the different stages of the pandemic.
Principles discussed in this article will help build preparedness capacity and offer communication strategies for moving from the acute phase to the 'next normal' with likely prevention (e.g. herd immunity achieved through vaccination) and societal COVID-19 resilience.
背景/目的：通过研究对过去危机的应对措施，公共卫生危机沟通的理解和实践得到了改善，但需要针对当前挑战进行调整。“应对埃博拉和其他疫情”清单包含了一些指导原则，这些原则基于世界卫生组织针对疯牛病（牛海绵状脑病）危机进行磋商后制定的准则，后来这些准则被应用于埃博拉疫情。本文的目的是使该清单适用于2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间出现的健康沟通挑战和公共卫生实践。以促进疫苗接种接受度的沟通挑战为例，说明一个需要加强沟通的关键领域。项目或服务类型：COVID-19大流行期间适用的有效沟通原则。
COVID-19大流行给公共卫生从业者和健康沟通者带来了独特的挑战，这需要扩展现有的健康沟通原则，以考虑到：新的信息疫情（或错误/不实信息疫情）挑战——尤其是在研发治疗方法和疫苗时；风险和不确定性的沟通；健康信息行为以及社交媒体的即时性，以及媒体素养与健康素养之间的关系；大流行对其他健康问题的影响；以及需要一种灵活的沟通策略，以适应大流行的不同阶段。
本文讨论的原则将有助于建立防范能力，并提供从急性期过渡到“新常态”的沟通策略，实现可能的预防（例如通过接种疫苗实现群体免疫）以及社会对COVID-19的恢复力。
