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 […]
“For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,” Caitlyn Jenner states to Diane Sawyer on “20/20” Friday (April 24, 2015). With over 750,000 transgender persons in the US, and an estimated 15,000 active members in the armed forces, the Jenner story has (fortunately) propelled ubiquitous discussion about transgender – in the media, among advocates […]
Depend, the adult diaper folks, brings us a new TV Ad campaign called “Drop Your Pants for Underwareness.” Here are the key sound bites. Sound Bite #1 [Depend is launching] “A cause to support the over 65 million people who may need Depend underwear.” In one of the Ads, Depend Brand Director, Liz Metz, […]
Dr. Tom Frieden, Director, CDC (Sunday 10/13/14) At some point, there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection.” “The (Ebola treatment) protocols work. … But we know that even a single lapse or breach can result in infection.” Bandwagon Terms; Definition When experts introduce a technical / scientific […]
I write a lot about the mounds of health information that fails to communicate clearly to the majority of the US public – not highly science and health literate and who labor to read well. When NYC City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito tweeted last night that she had been diagnosed with “high risk” HPV, I knew […]
I’d say the US broadcast media and online sources have shown restraint in the visual aids they’ve used covering Ebola this past week. Avoiding the horribly gory photos you can easily uncover on a Google search, in favor of health workers in HazMat suits and maps of the affected African regions. One visual that’s been […]
Simplifying! Last week I read the always informative NYT article on antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” through the lens of – how does a low health literate person make meaning from this. I call this doing a Health Literacy Load Analysis – Identify the underlying concepts that the text/message assumes the reader has some working […]
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