I’m starting up GO FIX ME installments on this blog. The mission – no less than purging our land of public health communication filled with self-involved, gratuitous, gobbledygook language, that makes it difficult and often impossible for readers to understand and take action. (How’s that for a mission!) Here’s my first specimen and I’m hoping […]
My last post sliced into the incomprehensible language and format NY State used in a key gateway form that New Yorkers had to navigate in order to register to get the Covid Vaccine. NYS could get some lessons in clear communication by checking out it’s own next door neighbor – Connecticut – Ct.gov. Connecticut has […]
Question 1 Given all that’s happened in the last year – over 500,000 people dead more sickened and families wounded forever, ships and soccer fields turned into hospital words, endless lines for Covid testing and vaccination chaos, Black Lives Matter, QAnon, hoaxes and conspiracy theories – how is it even possible that the very public […]
Allow me to frame the following critique by quoting what my ex (lovingly) used to say to me: “You have a problem for every solution” But, I digress, Like most health communication people I’ve spent this year thinking about, writing about and re-imaging how we could have done better communicating the Covid pandemic to various “general […]
Guess what you can’t find on the NYC Covid “Latest Data” site anymore? Answer: How many New Yorkers tested positive on any given day. Nope. Gonzo. “Less pertinent” Mayor DeBlasio said this week as he announced yet another change to the way the city presents Covid data to the public. Reporting the city’s seven-day rolling […]
It’s probably like, if you’ve been married with kids, and dogs and houses for 30 years and you find out your spouse has a second, parallel family somewhere. Or your crowd pleasing lemon cake stops reliably rising the way it always has. Maybe more like a winning backhand shot that now keeps getting tangled up […]
A reader asked me to give some alternatives to deleting more complicated or technical words and simply substituting easy ones – the subject of yesterday’s post. Instead of creating a dossier of words you “shouldn’t use” try any of these: Original Sentence“The flu can be transmitted easily from one person to another.”Deletion – Substitution“The […]
Since the early 90s, in response to large scale national studies revealing the low health literacy of at least half of the population, public health experts have promoted a “prescription to end confusion”. Simple, “easy-to-read” “plain language” to yield improved health literacy, and thus improved health behaviors and better health outcomes. For just as many […]
Friday’s shelter in place activity for me – continue interviewing (virtually) people about what they understand and don’t understand about Covid19 information. As I do these interviews, I am very aware that my work is not part of the critical rescue mission. I don’t have medical training. I can’t drive a bus, or direct traffic, or […]
If you’re like me you keep track. And you see something predictable and maddening. Each time we’re faced with the outbreak of a poorly understood or new virus ( H1N1, SARS, Zika, Ebola) you can count on trusted sources of information to be writing/speaking to anyone but the average public. Here’s the first descriptive information […]
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