Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
2023-24 Health Sciences Seminar Series – Dr. Raywat Deonandan
January 18, 2024 at 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
| Location: | This event will take place over Zoom (please see registration button below) |
| Cost: | Free |
The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to announce the next seminar in our 2023-24 Health Sciences Seminar Series, and this event will be via Zoom (see registration buttons below).
The Challenges of Public Health Communication in the Age of COVID
Abstract:
The World Health Organization identified transparency in communication as one of the three best practices for controlling a pandemic, learned in the wake of the SARS epidemic of 2003. But misinformation and disinformation complicated our public health response and exacerbated ideological divisions already present in society. In addition, basic innumeracy and a poor understanding of the nature of exponential growth impaired the ability of audiences to appreciate the gravity of disease forecasts. A rehabilitated approach to pandemic communication is needed, one that not only meets the traditional public health goals of disease control, but that is also hardened against the now likely presentation of targeted and well-resourced disinformation.
Presenter:
Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Chair in University Teaching
Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa