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Who I am: Hyung Joon Kim, DrPH (Doctor of Public Health) candidate at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
What I created: I recently published an op-ed titled “Restoring North Korea’s Childhood Immunization Program” at The Diplomat. The first draft of this piece was written for Andy Burness’ practical communication strategies course. Thanks to Andy for his guidance throughout the op-ed writing process!
Why it matters: With over a decade of experience in childhood immunization, working with organizations such as UNICEF and Gavi, my mission has been to reach the hard-to-reach through social and behavior change communication. Seeing the 0% immunization coverage in North Korea for 2022 compelled me to write an op-ed to raise public awareness of this silent crisis and demand action from responsible parties.
What I learned: Interpreting the data in a way that adds emotional meaning can pull a broader audience into a story and help them visualize reality. For example, I highlighted that “0% childhood immunization coverage in North Korea” means that “no child in North Korea received vaccines in 2022”. While these statements both pull from the same data, the interpretation that no child had received a vaccine is likely to capture a larger audience than discussing 0% coverage.
