As we approach 2 years of COVID-19, US pandemic messaging has settled into some counterproductive patterns. I want to address eight of these risk communication mistakes that public health officials and experts keep making.
Turning them around can rebuild trust and help save lives. In August 2020, CIDRAP published my commentary titled, "Public health's share of the blame: US COVID-19 risk communication failures." I tracked what I saw—and still see—as a series of missteps by public health officials in the early months of the pandemic:Over-reassuring the publicPanicking and overreactingFlubbing the rationale for lockdownsAbandoning "flatten the curve"Insisting that public health should be in chargeExcept for misstep 5, which is still super