"6 feet apart" or "mask up" are cool slogans but 8 months into this epidemic..."

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Unrolled thread here:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1303313755187695617.html

“6 feet apart” or “mask up” are cool slogans but 8 months into this epidemic, we should be communicating better than this.

People don’t need more slogans.

They need to understand the activities & scenarios that led to the spread of #covid19 so they can calculate risk better.

2/ There are a few now “famous” outbreaks— restaurant in China w/ AC spread; wedding in Jordan w/ sick father in law; children’s camps in Georgia; Buddhist monk outbreak on a bus— these have been important & informative.

But we should be reporting so many more of these.

3/ These data should be collected quickly, analyzed, & reported in a public-facing way so that people can figure out whether or not they really want to go to that restaurant indoors, or if they want to take their mask off during their lunch break.

4/ These can also help people understand activities that are more safe, such as exercising outdoors, where transmission is so much lower. Perhaps more people would be running without masks, and more would be masking indoors and avoiding high risk activities.

5/ People are smart, & they are committed to their own safety. But as time goes on, people also weigh the risk and benefits of activities as they try to return to life as much as they can. Having specific examples & a real breakdown of how a super spreading event happened...

6/ Is so important. It’s easy to say “stay 6 feet apart” over and over again. Or scream “masks” louder. But there is more work to be done in terms of how we communicate about the spread of infection. It gives us something concrete to grab on to & apply into our own lives.

7/ No matter what, most people will not be masking the whole day, nor do they need to. But when you fail to help people understand the situations which led to outbreaks & why, they will eventually have to make assumptions about what is and isn’t safe.

8/ An outbreak in our state happened at a hospital during a lunch break where workers took off masks to eat together. Now I am sure they did not intend for spread to happen. But spread often can happen when we least expect or consider it.

9/ We can use that example to very clearly point out to many people who will be returning to work that they should head outside for lunch when possible. Using outbreak examples in real time can prevent the same mistakes from happening again. Saying “wear a mask” isn’t enough.
Cc thread- we need to communicate better about how infection is spreading @zeynep @carlzimmer @JohnJHarwood @balajis @apoorva_nyc @AliNouriPhD @SaskiaPopescu @nataliexdean @EpiEllie @DrTomFrieden @ASlavitt

Longer piece coming on this from @RanuDhillon & myself coming soon
Thread - we need to communicate better about how spread is happening Cc @MollyJongFast @j_g_allen @JeremyKonyndyk @Craig_A_Spencer @PaulSaxMD @JuliaLMarcus @CaroMT @CarolineYLChen @mccabe_caitlin @cmyeaton @T_Inglesby @CT_Bergstrom

10/ @RanuDhillon & I have a piece coming out on this shortly— we have discussed this at length for months: outbreak investigations can truly help us focus on the details of what went wrong/why. The fact that we rely on media reports & very staggered journal articles is a problem

[ProfessorGAC]

1. A Nit To Pick

From tweet 3:

... if they want to take their mask off during their lunch break.

Exactly how would someone eat lunch with their mask on? IV?

[we can do it]

2. You can't sit together unmasked. Simple.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Still Taking A Lunch Break

Author should have worded it better.
On your point; big facility of company from which I retired, rented tents and bought tables, so operators could leave control room to eat, unmasked.
The tents are (I'm told) 18' square, with a couple small tables so 2 people can eat, outdoors, about 12 feet apart.
Seems wise.
It's a huge place. Around 120 acres of operating area. So, multiple set-ups like this can be a couple hundred yards apart.
Not sure what they're doing about office or lab staff.

[SheltieLover]

6. I wonder this as well, about both restaurants & schools

Guessing we are not supposed to be thinking.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. School Solutions

Been to 2 sub meetings at local districts.
One is sending kids, in shifts to cafeteria. Get food, and take it back to classroom. Half dozen kids eating, the rest stay masked. When they're done eating, next shift. And so on.
The other school is doing the same thing with shifts, but kids stay in small numbers in the cafeteria, spread out, a couple kids to each table.
The 2 biggest districts in which I sub are 100% remote, so eating problem solved. Except for the low income kids!

[SheltieLover]

8. TY, Professor!

Those sound like good options. Ty for sharing!

[Throck]

9. Straw and a beer.

[genxlib]

3. He has more faith in public comprehension than I do

More complex messaging about the threat would be warranted if we believed in the attention span and cognitive ability of the public.

More importantly, it would only work if it was overwhelmingly messaged from top to bottom.

At this point, we can't even get the simple messages out consistently without mixed messages from the GOP.

[BannonsLiver]

4. It's more like 6 months in

Shit started getting bad here in early March.

[frazzled]

10. Answer to number 3

“ whether or not they really want to go to that restaurant indoors.”

Many of us have been saying no to that for 6 months. But many many others continue to say yes, yes, yes.

I think you perhaps underestimate the public’s willingness to relate facts to their life choices. If it’s too inconvenient or not enough fun, they’ll ignore the facts every time.