How can we communicate scientific uncertainty? Can the use of humor, serious games and arts help us to make science more understandable? What can we do to communicate scientific processes in a more transparent way?
These and more questions were discussed at the WHO global conference on communicating science during health emergencies, which took place virtually from 7 to 25 June 2021. In a world marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, everybody has become a science communicator – may it be at work, the dinner table or on social media. The conference convened professional and every-day science communicators from a broad range of disciplines to identify the challenges they encountered during the pandemic and find solutions to make science accessible and relevant to all.
The public opening of the conference featured five renown keynote speakers from academia and practice. Their presentations covered topics as diverse as conveying uncertainty and statistics to the public, using social media to promote protective measures and the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration to translate scientific messages into easily understandable visuals. Over 3000 participants from 159 countries joined the opening and submitted close to 500 questions to the speakers.
The public closing featured two invited keynote speeches highlighting the potential of using social media and storytelling techniques to mitigate the infodemic. The session also presented three innovative science communication concepts using illustrations, a children's book and a Q&A format to reach diverse target audiences. The examples had been selected through a global call for good practice cases launched by WHO in April 2021. An expert panel further reported back on the thematic discussions during the closed sessions of the conference. These were held with 61 invited researchers, media representatives, decision-makers and professionals working in health, education, tourism and culture from 26 countries.
To date, the sessions' opening and closing recordings were viewed more than 20 000 times on YouTube. These numbers show an enormous interest of the public in the topic of science communication during the pandemic.
Lessons learnt from the expert discussions
Participants identified key steps towards effective science translation: First, a need to re-think existing scientific processes to ensure research is being shared in a timely manner during health crises but still undergoes quality control and scientific debate. This also includes a transparent communication of scientific processes to help people understand what science can and cannot do. While the public often expects science to provide clear answers, scientific knowledge generation takes time, is built on scientific debate and is in fact inherently linked to uncertainty. Open communication of this uncertainty will prevent people from losing trust in science when the constantly evolving evidence leads to changing public health recommendations.
Second, the concerns, beliefs and needs of target audiences need to be taken more into consideration when communicating science. There is no one-size-fits all solution. Instead of "pouring out" general information, a constant dialogue with communities is required to ensure the scientific information is relevant, understandable and credible to them. The continuous dialogue with different stakeholder groups will also help to build trust in science and encourage people to ask questions and voice concerns.
Third, it takes innovation and creativity for effective science translation. People consume information on different channels, at different times of the day and in different formats. Science communication should add to people's lives in a meaningful and action-oriented manner and meet them where they are in terms of preferences, values and beliefs.
Next steps
WHO is committed to translate the insights from the conference into action. Not just to improve science translation and manage the infodemic during the COVID-19 pandemic but also to be prepared for the next health emergency. Follow-up activities of the conference will include:
- Building a global, multidisciplinary network of science communicators. A continuous dialogue with researchers, media representatives, decision-makers and professionals working in health, education, culture and tourism will help to identify and address challenges in a concerted, collaborative manner;
- Developing capacity building resources for science communicators to empower them to judge the quality and independence of scientific research and share this with their audiences.;
- Strengthening scientific and health literacy to empower people to ask critical questions about the information they encounter on- and offline and make evidence-informed decisions;
- Analyzing existing good practice examples of science communication to understand what works and what does not work, and develop more effective, innovative science communication concepts for the future.
The enormous interest in the global conference confirmed WHO's mandate to play a key role in science communication and infodemic management during health emergencies. The timely implementation of follow-up activities will be crucial to support countries and the multidisciplinary science communication community to build trust in science and make it accessible and understandable to all.
