Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Medicine / Infectious Disease / Epidemiology / @KFF @CBSNews @NYUGrossman @BellevueHosp doc / Threads @drcelinegounder / Bluesky @celinegounder.com

Feb 1, 2020, 25 tweets

THREAD: Trust is going to be key to controlling the #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak. Lots of lessons to be gleaned from our experience with vaccines and Ebola.

re: #HPV #vaccines: “attitudes and life experiences” & the opinions of doctor & their peers matter more than information pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/117/5/…
#nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

Trust in medical profession & personal health care provider matters just as much as the information itself. iop-harvard-edu.ezproxy.med.nyu.edu/trust-institut… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

Do I trust your motivations? Do they have my best interest in at heart? russellsage.org/publications/t… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"Gaining trust has become difficult w/ rise of nationalist populism, which often questions science & casts doubt on expert opinions. The public cannot rely on the media to provide unbiased or accurate messages." thelancet.com/journals/lanin… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"Campaigns should recruit well-trusted spokespeople such as leaders in sport/entertainment/religion. Health engagement is often most effective at community level through local leaders/teachers/religious figures." thelancet.com/journals/lanin… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"Social media enterprises should be held accountable for rooting out irresponsible vaccine rumours pervading their platforms." thelancet.com/journals/lanin… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"those who do not trust the government—often for reasons unrelated to vaccines—sometimes extend their distrust of government to distrust of vaccines, as well as towards the people and systems that deliver them" nature.com/articles/s4156… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"vaccines are produced by the pharmaceutical industry, which—even in its most generous and humanity-driven moments—aims to generate profit, provoking public concerns about motives" nature.com/articles/s4156… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"next major outbreak—whether of a highly fatal strain of influenza or something else—will not be due to a lack of preventive technologies. ..." nature.com/articles/d4158… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"Instead, emotional contagion, digitally enabled, could erode trust in vaccines so much as to render them moot. ..." nature.com/articles/d4158… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

"The deluge of conflicting information, misinformation and manipulated information on social media should be recognized as a global public-health threat." nature.com/articles/d4158… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

Who are the bad actors? (1) people with medical credentials stoking overblown/unfounded fears (e.g. Andrew Wakefield), (2) those who see public health debates as a financial opportunity for selling something, ... nature.com/articles/d4158… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

... (3) those who see public health crises as a political opportunity, a wedge with which to polarize society, (4) "super-spreaders," who propagate misinformation through social media. nature.com/articles/d4158… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

( .@ProfHeidiLarson, author of this last publication nature.com/articles/d4158…, will be speaking on #vaccine hesitancy at #TEDMED in March. ) #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "we judge the level of risk associated with an activity, technology or disease to be extreme and unacceptable if the hazard:
- is new or unfamiliar.
- is perceived as increasing and unbounded. ...
washingtonpost.com/posteverything… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "-is invisible and uncontrollable.
- evokes feelings of dread.
- has fatal outcomes.
- is seen as not adequately understood by experts."
washingtonpost.com/posteverything… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "reliance on feelings to assess risk is not necessarily irrational. ...enabled humans to survive the long course of evolution, before scientific methods and quantitative risk assessment were available." washingtonpost.com/posteverything… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "when the consequences of an event, such as becoming infected with #Ebola, evoke feelings of dread, the likelihood of that event occurring may be greatly overestimated" washingtonpost.com/posteverything… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "When strong emotions are triggered by a risk, people show a remarkable tendency to neglect a small probability that the risk will actually come to fruition." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "...communicators consider directly countering misinformation because of the potential influence on their silent audience, i.e. those observing but not openly commenting, liking or sharing posts." bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "Refutations should be straightforward, succinct and avoid emphasizing misinformation. Communicators should consider pairing scientific evidence with stories that speak to audience beliefs and values." bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "Most people learn about medicine/science from newspaper & magazine stories, radio reports, the WWW, & TV programs. ...news media influences the public's perception of diseases, their causes, & their importance." sciencedirect.com/science/articl… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "Similarly, news reports about MMR vaccine & autism have been more interesting than informative--reports often include emotional & dramatic stories of parents concerned..." sciencedirect.com/science/articl… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

@ProfHeidiLarson "The challenge to healthcare professionals is to make the story that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism at once informative, personal, emotional, and compelling." sciencedirect.com/science/articl… #nCoV2019 #coronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak

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