Consistency is crucial: ‘You can’t have conflicting messages, as we have had in the current situation [with COVID-19] as a consequence of politics’ — Jay Winsten on “Weekend Edition”

Among the challenges for public health professionals: getting people to take precautions. Jay Winsten…the director of the Initiative on Communication Strategies for Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says effective public health communication is crucial to get people to change their behavior … Continue reading

Effective public health ads/PSAs require clear, actionable, steps combined with credible stories from ‘the right messengers’

Marketing experts say public health advertising often falls short because it incites people’s worst fears rather than providing clear steps viewers can take to save lives. They say lessons from opioid messaging can inform campaigns seeking to influence behavior that could help curb the coronavirus pandemic, such as wearing masks, not gathering in big groups and getting a covid-19 vaccine…’It needs the right messengers: well-known individuals who have high credibility within specific population groups that currently are hesitant about taking the vaccine,’ [Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s, Jay] Winsten said … Continue reading