Effective communication key to reducing COVID-19 spread – Virologist

A virologist and medical laboratory scientist, Dr. Solomon Chollom, on Tuesday said with the easing of the lockdown, effective communication was salient in reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Chollom stated this in an interview in Jos. 

He explained that effective communication had to do with making people understand why they need to adhere and comply with the precautionary measures against the virus.

He said that stakeholders’ meetings alone would not translate to strategic and effective information dissemination as most of the representatives might not relay the message effectively.

The virologist said that it was obvious from some peoples’ display of passive disposition toward the precautionary measures and the disbelief about the virus, that the message about the risks and consequences of contracting the virus on lives and livelihoods were not yet clear to most people.

He said that it was imperative for the government to embark on community dialogue, door-to-door health campaigns to enlighten the people about the disease and to disabuse the fact that the virus is a hoax and does not exist.

The virologist said that if this was effectively done, more people would adhere and comply with the health precautionary measures without being forced to comply as they would have had a better understanding of the pandemic.

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“Government needs to do more than policy generation and enforcement. Strategies to get people understand the situation must be reappraised and adopted to make people take up responsibility naturally without the use of force which only creates a fake sense of compliance upon sighting enforcement agents,” Chollom said.

He said that that non-adherence to the guidelines cuts across social, educational, religious and economic blocs, asserting that “these were clear feedback to government that the communication and community engagement model in use was not very effective.”