So here’s the deal: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said they “hope to finish this pandemic [in] less than two years,” which seems to me to be a charmingly Pollyannaish way of saying this pandemic could last ‘round about two damn years, y’all. There are a lot of perspectives from which this might be a disaster, but from a marketing and advertising perspective, it’s a challenge: Unfortunately, people quickly get inured to a constant stream of COVID-19 information, and over the next two years, there’s going to be a lot of new information that they’ll very much need to know.
You don’t need me to tell you that information these days has to be eye-catching, accurate, informative, and easy to understand. (Obviously, I’m telling you anyway.) And “make an infographic or explainer video” is hardly a revolutionary approach to message strategy. (… Starting to wonder why I bothered with this post.) But whittling a lot of complex information into an easily scanned graphic can be quite the task, and when pretty much everything you need to convey could be life-saving, getting it right is important. Here are a few pieces that do the job well.
Masking
We’ve been getting a lot of information about how to mask ever since the CDC announced that we should. But we aren’t always told why. Some people question why a healthy person should go to the trouble of wearing a mask, and this infographic from Clovis Community Medical Center illustrates the risk of transmission when masks are and aren’t worn. Just enough text, quite… evocative spit-droplet graphics, easy to consume at a glance. I’m for it.
Transmission figures
As one might expect, the medical journal The Lancet has actual statistics on the effectiveness of various types of COVID-19 precautions. I like this graphic for how it presents those statistics clearly, because numbers are hard, y’all.
Fake Ne — nope, not going there
The pandemic of… we’ll say misleading news isn’t as deadly as the COVID-19 pandemic, but it can definitely be a contributor to coronavirus spread. That makes it another thing to guard yourself against. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has a (downloadable) graphic with simple tips for identifying misleading news stories before you accidentally share something bad that could go viral, because God knows we’re full up on viruses at the moment.
Confusing statistics
One of the most confusing things about this entire pandemic is the math. Statistics are complicated, projections keep changing, and people pull out a lot of very different numbers to discuss the same pandemic. This video breaks down two of the most-used numbers: case fatality rate (CFR) and infection fatality rate (IFR). Dr. F. Perry Wilson takes some mad-wicked high-level concepts and makes them understandable. The video is short, it’s clear, it has helpful graphics, and it’s actually comprehensible.
Totally unqualified editorial note
I’m going to throw an editorial note in here, despite the fact that I’m totally unqualified to do so. (In my defense, everything I’m presenting here comes from actual experts, linked below.) “Death rate,” which is a common topic of conversation right now, isn’t actually a concept used in pandemic math — it’s usually one of the figures discussed above. But the two figures aren’t just based on different math — they’re intended for different purposes.
CFR is usually used to characterize the severity of a disease, looking at the likelihood of death among people who become sick from COVID-19. IFR is usually used in epidemiology planning, when trying to figure out what to expect and what to prepare for. Neither of those figures is intended to declare the pandemic a hoax and throw COVID caution to the wind because hey, even if we get it, there’s a 97-to-99.75-percent chance we’ll survive. That’s not what that figure means. Remember that the epidemiologists also have access to those statistics and are still telling us all to stay home and wear masks. Listen to the epidemiologists.
This has been a public service announcement from someone who’s technically unqualified to release a PSA on the subject but knows enough to know which experts to link to.
Stay informed, and keep others that way
Like I said, the use of infographics and explainer videos isn’t shiny-fancy-new. But during a freaking pandemic, it’s particularly important to do those things right. Accidentally omitting some important context or failing to effectively translate complicated concepts to your audience can have significant consequences. But these folks are getting it right, and you can, too.
Oh, and please wear a mask and social distance and stay home when you can. I haven’t seen my parents in person since Christmas, and I really, really need to hug them.