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The
Opportunities And Challenges Of Public Communication During The
COVID-19 Pandemic
A
Conversation With Vanderbilt University’s William Schaffner---A “Go
To” Communicator Par Excellence
During the COVID
pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of
Health is undoubtedly the most frequently appearing expert on TV and
other media. Another much sought after spokesperson is Vanderbilt
University’s William Schaffner, an infectious disease and
epidemiology expert who served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service
officer at CDC and is currently Professor of Preventive Medicine in
the Department of Health Policy as well as Professor of Medicine in
the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine.
Bill Schaffner served
on the first advisory board for The Epidemiology Monitor and has been
a longtime supporter of the newsletter since it first appeared 40
years ago.
We wondered how Bill’s
science communication tasks and challenges have changed during the
COVID pandemic compared to communication challenges associated with
past public health problems and what insights he could share with the
epidemiology community. He did not hesitate in accepting our
invitation, and below are his candid remarks about his approach to
science, infectious disease, epidemiology and public health
communication with the public.
Epi Monitor:
How
did you come to play such an important and prominent role as the “go
to person” for the NY Times and other publications and multiple media
outlets on such a wide variety of science related topics?
Schaffner:
Well,
going way back to my youth, it's probably a theatrical production that
I could point to. When I was in college I was also involved in
theater. But then of course I put that aside when I went to medical
school. But I was always attracted to this form of communication.
When I joined the
Epidemic Intelligence Service at CDC I was assigned to the state
health department in Rhode Island, and while I was there the state
epidemiologist left to take another position. I became the “point man”
for local reporters, and I answered media questions about influenza,
salmonella and other topics. I came to see answering questions from
media as a teaching opportunity just as working at the bedside or in
the laboratory or giving a seminar was a teaching opportunity. Each
one of those venues has distinctive characteristics and opportunities
for teaching. Whether we are physicians or PHD’s, we are referred to
as “doctor”. This word derives from the Latin docere which
means to teach.
I do
think my predilection for performance and working in the college drama
group and now resurrecting some of that fun by working with
journalists helps explain how I ended up doing so much media work or
what I call “performance teaching”.
Epi
Monitor:
Well that is a fascinating evolution for sure. It confirms the maxim
that there’s often more to the story than meets the eye. There are
often roots to behaviors that go way back to past interests and
activities.
Given
your status and experience in doing this media work you undoubtedly
have some tips gathered over the years from what you’ve really learned
about doing this kind of “performance teaching”.
Schaffner:
I know in later years after I started that organizations have
introduced media training for their professional staff or faculty and
I've had just a touch of it here and there. Some very simple lessons
--- one of them is of course you can find out what the interest of the
journalist is, and what's the story all about. You may have the
opportunity to work with your own public relations office since those
folks are very helpful to you. And whatever the subject is, take a
deep breath, sit down for a moment, and think of what your SOCO is,
i.e., your single overriding communications objective. Focus on just
two or three..
And then
as you do this interview, no matter what question you’re asked, you
can always bridge to your SOCO. You can say “what I would like to
emphasize” and then keep going back to your SOCO. Of course it’s very
important to keep everything that you say based on the best and latest
public health science.
The
other lesson is just keep it simple; don’t get complicated. Always
figure out what does this mean to the average person. You can pitch
your messages so that they are understood by your proverbial
grandmother or relative who has a high school education. That is the
level at which you want to pitch your messages.
This may not be for
everyone, but I think a lot of people could become effective
communicators when they find themselves in a position in academia or
in public health communicating with a larger audience.
EpiMonitor:
What do
you think are some of the personality traits that make some people
more effective at this? I mean you've alluded to the fact that for
you it's kind of fun just like it was fun to participate in theater.
I think many people would look at it as the opposite of fun. But again
what more would you say about personality traits?
Schaffner:
I don't have any hidden agendas and I try to be objective. We public
health professionals are still looked to with a certain respect, and I
think we can take advantage of that as we communicate. I think of
myself as an ambassador representing the best public health practice,
and explaining infectious disease issues to the general public.
Part of
my concept is realizing that journalists are in the business of
communicating and that they need the story. And if we have important
information, we need to communicate that information. We need them
because they are our means of communicating with the general public.
We need to be able to get on the TV news and have access to print
media in order to communicate in rapid fashion to the general public.
So I
have always seen journalists as partners, not adversaries and I try to
convey that when I'm communicating with the journalists. You often
have an opportunity to chat before you start the interviews and I try
to establish a personal relationship with the journalist over t |