UK Govt, your public health policy might be spot on, but your comms are just horrific. Why are your behavioural scientists not working with you on community engagement? 1/n
At the moment, the communications vacuum you seem to have allowed to develop is being filled by a world of fake news and charlatans looking to make a quick buck off people’s fear 2/n
(like this self serving piece of tripe whose infectious disease qualifications appear primarily to be deep knowledge of the narrative arc of Star Wars @tomaspueyo), and ALSO and more to the point, it is making you look incredibly callous. 3/n
The old and the more vulnerable seem to have confusingly high levels of trust in you 4/n
But the younger generations clearly don’t trust you. Trust in our public health and political authorities is critical to get people to ‘comply’ with any public health measures, especially the extreme ones that we are likely to face over the coming months. 5/n
Trust being important is a no-brainer. But we also KNOW this from multiple other outbreaks around the world e.g. thelancet.com/article/S1473-… 6/n
The UK is not special in this regard. Just like the people of Sierra Leone, or Brazil, or DRC, the people of this country need reassurance, to believe that those in power care about preserving life as far as possible. 7/n
Just saying ‘we need to bring everyone with us’ is NOT community engagement. It’s not reassuring. It’s patronising and didactic and offensive, from a government that (given its political colours and elitest make-up) is going to have try extra hard to get people on board. 8/n
People are looking like total loons and hoarding bog roll because they don’t know what’s coming, and they don’t know when. 9/n
This isn’t complicated. Give them tentative dates. Explain those might change. Explain why your policy and public health approach is so different from other countries’. 10/n
Treat your electorate like intelligent adults who can handle information about what you’re planning, what your assumptions are, how you’ve arrived at this policy decision. 11/n
So fix up, get your comms people to do a better job, consult with community engagement specialists, accept that emergencies affect Brits - psychologically and socially - the same way they affect communities all over the world. Work harder at looking human. 12/n
The utilitarian arguments aren’t enough. Even those people that understand and buy into them are still terrified that their Nan or elderly uncle or friend with chronic disease is going to be really badly hurt, and they need to feel you’re on their side. END
