CDC’s Virus Messaging Is Too Complicated to Trust
We can't expect the public to follow Covid-19 guidelines that are complicated and hard to read.
Maybe the people who aren't getting it just don't get it.
Photographer: Mark Makela/Getty Images
Lots of people are not wearing masks, avoiding crowds or otherwise doing whatever is needed to stop the spread of Covid-19. Some of that is obstinacy or denial of the threat, but much more of the poor virus-fighting behavior likely derives from misunderstanding of the health risks and what precautions to take.
Guidance on the pandemic, especially in the U.S., has been explained inconsistently and changed frequently, which naturally leads to confusion. But a recent JAMA Network Open paper by scholars Vishala Mishra and Joseph P. Dexter suggests there’s more going on: The language in government messages may be especially hard to read and process in the first place.1