Description

Public health communication aboutspecificdiseases is extremely challenging. Experts in diseases areseldomtrained to translate jargon into everyday language, leavingawidening gap between the experts and the public. Within thisgap,the media has taken on the job—mostly without any formalpublichealth training—of translating jargon into understanding.Thequality of public health reporting varies widely in popularmediaoutlets as most have strong biases and lack a realunderstanding ofthe disease. This is a dangerous situation: ifexperts can’tcommunicate effectively to the lay audience and themediamisinforms the public, we risk losing the public’s confidenceandsupport of our research and interventions, leading to rejectionofinterventions, loss of research funding, and delay or evenreversalof public health progress.

Public Health United aims to improve public healthcommunicationthrough podcasts, articles, and outreach.

Founded by Nina Martin, PhD student at Johns Hopkins SchoolofPublic Health.