So, I'm not going to tag all the folks I've had disagreements with for *months* now, since December, who didn't believe me that our bungled messaging on post-vaccine transmission was fueling vaccine hesitancy.
How many examples have we heard now? I hear this every single day. https://t.co/AmOgwNgx39
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To make it clear, the remedy isn't to give false or unsubstantiated hope, but to get out of the "we don't know" trap when we *do* have some sense of the direction, but need more clarity with data (which we can say), and also to emphasize the real upside!
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted joseph osmundson (all pronouns)
See what people accuse me of, when I make the most basic point? That I suggested that we "just lie to people", or "express certainty about something we don't know." Exactly the problem that I'm talking about.https://twitter.com/reluctantlyjoe/status/1359333090573881350 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted joseph osmundson (all pronouns)
So worth dissecting. The fear is "people are gonna wanna.. go wild" if they hear the correct message that we do expect the vaccines to reduce transmission, but we're waiting for more data before relaxing the guidance. So we say "we don't know" when we do.https://twitter.com/reluctantlyjoe/status/1359340516689723394 …
zeynep tufekci added,
joseph osmundson (all pronouns) @reluctantlyjoeReplying to @MattNoahSmith @jbender22 @zeynepi'm great with HOPE! i love HOPE! and yet it's critically important that – while vaccines are scarce – we stay the course on NPIs, vaccinated or not. *that* messaging is actually hard. People are gonna wanna get the shot and go wild! And – for a million reasons – we can't do that11 replies 28 retweets 284 likesShow this thread -
This is a version of "if we tell people to mask up, they will stop distancing" which I heard from WHO and other experts early on why they didn't like masks. Sociologically it was the wrong guess and it was quickly debunked with data. People going "wild" fear has hampered so much.
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One can dismiss these as anecdotes but they're everywhere. Plus, we do have polling that shows transmission as key motivator for vaccines. The person I quoted about our terrible messaging was an infectious diseases epidemiologist/scientist at Johns Hopkins University, by the way.pic.twitter.com/Q1gPFnLXog
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Replying to @zeynep
This crisis showed us once again that scientists need to be trained by communication experts.
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Not sure that’s the answer. The field of “communication experts” is also a, well, mixed bag. Many weird ideas, a PR-like focus.
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Replying to @zeynep
At least they have to see the need to emphasize some positive aspects instead of "nothing will change". People need to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel to be encouraged to go on. By the way, did you have any chance to check the latest results from Israel?
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