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Throughout the pandemic, one thing has remained strikingly clear: There is a lack of health communication in the United States.
Confusing and inconsistent guidance He contributed to the wearing of masks and vaccinations Epidemic fatigueAllowing new variants to spread easily. So was online misinformation about Covid-19. Related to vaccine hesitancyEven if false claims are dismissed by public health authorities.
Social media may seem like the worst way to increase public health awareness, but when Most Americans have at least one social media profile.sharing information online can be an effective way to combat vaccine hesitancy and attract more people.
Dr. Cedric “Jamie” Rutland has seen this firsthand with the success of his YouTube channel. The medicine is broken.
Rutland, a pulmonologist and critical care physician, started the channel in 2017 primarily to practice his communication skills and break down complex medical concepts to viewers. After receiving positive feedback, it expanded to other forms of social media Instagram To disseminate information.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit America, Rutland knew his social media platforms would help more people understand what was going on.
“It’s worth taking this confusing wave of information and explaining it to the public in a way they can understand,” he told Global Citizen.
Today, Rutland has more than 22,000 subscribers on YouTube, demonstrating his success in answering the public’s questions and hesitations with engaging, scientific videos. and as a YouTube series coordinator for the American Public Health Association Hair salon medicineHe also notes that the power of social media can be even greater in hard-to-reach communities, including communities of color. Hesitation of the covid-19 vaccine Because he doesn’t trust the US health care system.
If the power of social media can be harnessed to find out who is hesitant about health care and what questions they have, public health officials can answer those questions to disseminate accurate information. The first step is to meet people where they are – which is, increasingly, online.
As America has experienced Another increase in cases of COVID-19Global Citizen spoke to Dr. Rutland about ways to put health care information online to improve access and combat hesitancy.
Global Citizen: What are your expectations for putting your medical knowledge on social media when you start Medical Decontaminated?
Dr. Cedric “Jamie” Rutland: Honestly, I started my YouTube channel before social media exploded in medical information. I wanted to practice my communication skills and how to explain concepts related to my knowledge of lungs. People seemed to like my explanation, so I started taking it more seriously and expanded to do the same with stories and my life on Instagram. I wanted to maintain a certain level of professionalism and focus on the real things I see every day.
Your pandemic videos go deeper than telling people to wear masks or get vaccinated. Why is it important to explain the details of how the body works to discuss Covid-19?
The right place was the right time when Covid-19 started. SARS-CoV-2 leads to autoimmune disease in the lungs, which is my specialty. And I didn’t want to tell people what to do – I wanted to explain the physiological and scientific context of COVID-19 so they can come to their own conclusions about how to protect themselves, which is wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
Concerned about medical misinformation on social media?
Misinformation is always out there, and people are always spreading their opinions, some of which are just plain wrong. With covid-19, people are not always intentionally spreading misinformation, but they have questions or are curious about different ideas.
I don’t feel like I have to fight misinformation, I have to give people information. I want to take their questions and explain the answers scientifically.
This pandemic has shown us how important it is to improve health communication so that people have the knowledge they need to protect themselves and others. Do you think social media is an effective way to do this?
Absolutely. Social media is a great place to share information because it’s where most people go to waste time. But we can use this opportunity to make people learn and be curious about things.
We can also learn and adjust a lot about what people think and want from public health. Not everyone can make a doctor’s appointment between 9am and 5pm, right? A doctor can market that they have office hours on weekends or between 5pm and 10pm, so that working people can go to the doctor’s office.
And with certain patients — like those living in the neighborhoods I grew up in, surrounded by liquor stores, cigar shops, and fast-food joints — social media may be the only place to spread information about common illnesses and treatments. Options.
This article is part of a series on vaccine hesitancy funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
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