The New York Times, most would agree, has done yeoman’s work in continuously reporting and updating information about Covid 19 vaccinations across the US. It’s daily “See How Your Vaccinations Are Going in Your County or State” – a map quilted in various shades of green to grey – allows you to hover over […]
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 […]
Covid 19 is complex. Complex science. Complex health. Complex social behavior. It’s by definition a complex emergency. And we know from 30 years of research that, millions and millions ( maybe 50%) of the US public has great difficulty with fundamental science concepts, health information and also has poor reading skills. The popular wisdom held by many in the […]
Yesterday I was listening to author Reid Wilson, Epidemic: Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak talk about epidemics on NPR yesterday. He was reflecting on what occurred during the Ebola outbreak and how it relates to today’s Covid19 pandemic. He was using a powerful example of how people in West Africa changed their […]
I’m sure you’ve noticed. It’s not uncommon for a word or phrase to come into fashion – now you see it and soon it’s everywhere. In fact this is very common: likes – as in how many did you get copay bingeable airplane mode manspreading fave the cloud social distancing Some terms are a flash […]
PT Barnum supposedly said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And no doubt each one of us has fallen for a deal too good to be true at one time or another. Disclosure, I’ve succumbed to purchasing my share of pointless potions promising dewy, youthful skin. But silly missteps aside, it’s highly predictable that in times […]
My 91 year old Mother is scheduled to go on a 6 day cruise in the Caribbean with her friends and all their walkers. Clearly, Coronavirus has changed the nature of the small talk from best-buffet-items to “what type of mask should I take.” My mom at 90 is the new 75 – active, sharp […]
The thread running through my last few posts about how CDC is communicating (or not,) the Coronavirus is that medical experts are using their familiar medical terms, like “novel virus” that stand for, or signify specific important information (semantics). And, importantly, that there is little reason to assume that the general non-scientific public understands these […]
–> Novel Virus Since every description of the “COVID-19” Coronavirus I’ve found uses the term “novel” I spent the afternoon searching for even one source easily available to the public online that explains what novel means and why it’s important for people to understand it. (This is what happens to a linguist with time on her […]
This week I was reading a thread on the IHA Health Literacy Discussion List and once again, contributors were talking about what tools they would use to assess a person’s health literacy in clinical settings. Should it be the NVS, TOFHLA, REALM and BRIEF. My reaction, and thankfully some of the contributors as well, was – OH […]
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