Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, the director of the St. Louis Department of Health, has turned to social media and to local clergy and community groups to help get the right message out. She says that conveying what's known and what's still to be learned is important.
St. Louis Public Radio is hosted by Brian Munoz.
Public health officials who know the difference between good and bad crisis communication say they can't afford to be quiet and wait until scientists know how risky the new variant is before they speak out.
"We don't want to just be silent on the matter, because then that can cause fear and then that can allow for misinformation to creeps in," says Elya Franciscus, the epidemiology operations manager for COVID-19 in Harris County, Texas.
In crisis communication, there's a saying: be first, be right, be credible. "One of those is being first," says Crystal Watson, a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security. Even though we don't know a lot, I think it's important to hear from public health officials. Being credible also means not giving information that may be changed as more is learned. The U.S. health officials learned at the start of the Pandemic that masks were not enough to protect against infections.
Sometimes the messages can be very definitive and not convey what is uncertain. If new information necessitates new guidance, you can be accused of flip-flops later.
How to get the message right.
Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County and City Health Officials says that a lot of local public health departments around the country are working hard to get the message right. Local health departments have been out there trying to explain to people what they know, but also what they don't know, and what the process is for learning more.
The director of health for the city of St. Louis is Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis.
She says there's no need to panic. We need to learn and wait for science to do its job. Tools are available to keep ourselves and our community safe. We know that vaccines are safe and effective, so we encourage you to get one.
The professor of health communication at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health says that Hlatshwayo Davis is signaling to the community that she's engaged and plans to. She is exactly what we need.
It won't eliminate concerns, but it will abate them, because of the sense of competence and action.
The public health measures officials have already recommended to protect against delta and any other variant of the disease are still a good idea. We don't know how that effectiveness will change, but we know that these are tried and true things that have worked for other variations.
Gaining trust is dependent on transparency.
Viswanath says that it's important to encourage people to stay on top of what's happening, with messages like this: " 'Here are the guidelines that have always worked, please take these actions, they will continue to work.' We will tell you if they don't work and there have to be changes.
He says that it's important to communicate the sense of transparency.
How she conveys these messages is important for Hlatshwayo Davis. She likes taking audience questions in town halls.
I want to be careful. I think it's difficult to tell them. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. She says right. She is using social media platforms and connecting with local clergy and community groups as her focus right now.
We still have a lot to learn. We have the tools to stay safe.
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Stay 6 feet apart in crowded spaces.
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The advocate for vaccine equity.
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Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH, is a doctor.
When there is more information about omicron, her department will have a town hall where they can have some really good dialogue.
Know your audience.
Public health officials are speaking to a mixed audience. Everyone is not panicked by the news. A lot of people are resistant to the idea of a new variant of concern. Communication can be made harder by that. It's difficult because people are tired and you have to understand where they're coming from.
A lot of health department staffers have their own fatigue. Getting the right message out is only one part of the mission. They need to be prepared to identify and track future omicron cases while dealing with the current load of delta cases.
"We've never stopped testing, we've never stopped vaccinations," says Franciscus in Harris County. It's easy for us to switch from 'Oh, maybe it looked like we were hitting a low point and we could maybe start slowing down' to 'OK, new variant, let's ramp up again.'
She says the county health department has a plan in place.
Hlatshwayo Davis says the public health toolkit is more robust than it was when the epidemic began.
Is the new variant the same as the old one in March to 2020? She says the answer is no.
We know what works and doesn't work and we have rapid tests available. We can give vaccines to children above the age of 5. She says this puts us beyond where we were.
