THE US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a guidebook for communicating about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, effectiveness, and efficacy.
According to NASEM, effective communication on COVID-19 vaccines is necessary to ensure a shared understanding of how they work and whether they are being equitable distributed.
Without this important effort, people may lose faith in the vaccines and in those who developed and provided them. Thus, the guidebook was created particularly for state, tribal, local, and territorial officials who play important roles in communicating the information in a timely, clear, authoritative manner. The book offers practical strategies for both the process and the content of such communication, recognizing that people respond to both how they learn about something and what they learn about it.
In drafting communications about the COVID-19 vaccine, NASEM recommends the following design principles:
- Define terms clearly.
- Use numbers to describe quantities.
- Compare options clearly.
- Present all relevant outcomes.
- Communicate uncertainty and anticipate changes.
