Coronavirus/Covid - Good Enough for Sesame Street But Not US Adults

Covid 19 is complex. 
Complex science.  
Complex health.  
Complex social behavior.  
It's by definition a complex emergency. 

And we know from 30 years of research that, millions and millions ( maybe 50%) of the US public has great difficulty with fundamental science concepts, health information and also has poor reading skills. 

The popular wisdom held by many in the field of healthy literacy is to "simplify" health and science language.  Jettison complex terms and, of course, jargon. 

This following example, advice offered up by a leading social media influencer in health literacy, was posted this week.  
For me it raises serious and disturbing questions about the consequences of continually gatekeeping and fabricating language that in now ways prepares people for all the varied science and health language they here all around them. 

The Post: 

Ditch “novel.” Normally, we might swap “novel” for “new” in plain language materials, but “the new coronavirus” sounds a bit like a shiny new car. And at this point, COVID-19 doesn’t feel so novel anyway.

So let me get this right.

It’s ok to introduce Sesame Street audiences to the words”coronavirus” and “Covid 19” – but not good for adults.  


I propose, rather simply, that this kind of communication by subtraction and substitution has succeeded over the last decades to distill out basic health and science concepts that are fundamental to understanding and engaging in complex health issues.  The Covid19 pandemic is a complex health issue.

I’d urge #wehearthealthliteracy and many others who work diligently and honestly to create good, meaningful health and science messages for at risks publics, to think about the significance of what they are saying and doing here. 

Are you sure you’re ready to accept the consequences of gatekeeping the fundamental terms people should be exposed to and learn? How are you not contributing and perpetuating the already enormous divide in access to information we se being played out, once again, in this current complex emergency?

Communication by subtraction and substitution has distilled out basic health and science concepts that are fundamental to understanding and engaging in complex health issues.  The Covid19 pandemic is a complex health issue.