Congratulations to our own LCDS Deputy Director Jenn Dowd Editor in Chief and Founding Member of Dear Pandemic, for being chosen as a case study by the World Health Organisation for innovative science communication!!
The WHO writes:
"Dear Pandemic" is an online communication platform created to support and empower individuals, especially women, to navigate science and public health information successfully during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The project was founded by an interdisciplinary, all-woman team comprising researchers and clinicians with expertise in medicine, epidemiology, demography, health policy, economics, mental health, nursing, behavioural science, and immunology. The team of volunteers engage in science translation work in addition to their day jobs. Through this double role, members of the team experienced first-hand the challenges women faced during the pandemic, and started the initiative to support them with evidence-based, practical advice.
The team publishes organized and reliable information on COVID-19 in simple language to enable its audience to understand complex concepts around the disease. The team also transparently cites scientific references from reliable sources, which clarifies misinformation and, importantly, facilitates users in their future information searches. Audiences are able to submit questions on the website and receive answers from the team's dedicated experts.
The project has five primary outlets for its content: a website,Twitter, Instagram,Facebook and LinkedIn.Facebook is the team’s primary social media platform, where new content is first posted. Articles and posts are cross-published across all five channels and are amplified as the audience shares them within their own networks. Content is published on a daily basis to offer readers a consistent and steady source of information on the COVID-19 pandemic. The posts are short, practical essays on topics high on the public agenda such as risk assessment, protective measures, testing, mental health, and information hygiene. The project also sends out a bi-weekly email newsletter with posts that are particularly timely.
Read about the full case study here.
