In March 2020, as COVID-19 began to disrupt life in communities across the world, Yale epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina was working at the University of Texas. As the dimensions of the public health crisis grew, she started to hear from more and more members of the campus community who were struggling to find information that was timely and easy to understand.
"I just stumbled upon this massive gap," said Jetelina, now an assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology (chronic diseases) at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).
So, Jetelina decided to meet the moment. She started emailing the university's faculty, staff, and students with the kinds of information they were looking for, covering everything from the effectiveness of masking to why people should trust vaccines. That's how her newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, was born. Today, Your Local Epidemiologist, a public health newsletter that translates ever-evolving science to the public, reaches more than 500 million readers in more than 92 countries.
Now she has brought her public health communication skills to YSPH where she now co-teaches a course called "Navigating the Media Landscape for Maximum Public Health Impact" alongside Naria Halliwell, senior lecturer at YSPH and former producer at ABC News.
The course was taught for the first time last spring (and will be taught again this spring). With about 30 students in the inaugural cohort, the course explored today's media landscape as well as scientific communication, covering everything from COVID-19 to misinformation on social media.
