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COVID-19: Journalists urged to put needs of the public at the centre of their work 

By Aghan Daniel I aghan@meshascience.org

 

The global COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis for the African continent and requires a momentous response if we are to recover from the devastation it has and will cause. Journalists, as part of the personnel at the frontline cannot afford to rest on their laurels as the pandemic ravages the cradle of man. 

“Journalists and health rights advocates must come together in solidarity, to be vigilant to monitor resource use by the authorities,” says Sylvia Nakasi of Uganda Network of AIDS Services Organisations. 

 While addressing journalists from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe during a cross-border science media café, the advocate noted that journalists must also amplify the need for other services for the good of the community and at the same time preach caution to governments not to hurry to find a vaccine or drugs to the detriment of the health of the public. 

The organizations at the forefront of the media café were Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) which led its planning and coordination, Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) from Kenya, Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre from Zimbabwe and Health Journalists Network in Uganda (HEJNU) from Uganda. 

Partnerships between journalists, scientists and health experts, said Ms Nakasi, is necessary to ensure the public consumed correct information about Covid-19 in a simple and easy to understand language. 

Journalists, she added, need to follow up on whether the resources meant to fight the pandemic are really aiding the interventions or are ending up in people’s pockets. 

 “Even as you work on your stories, do you ever stop to think about whether the man on the ground actually receives your information in a friendly format in a simple language?” she wondered while vouching for simplicity and accessibility of stories by journalists.

On her part, Ms Zarina Geloo, a veteran science journalist from Zambia asserted that health journalists, particularly those who have covered HIV before occupy a unique position to communicate COVID 19 while applying what has been learnt from covering the former. 

She urged journalists to keep their eyes on the big prize by covering all that needs to be communicated to their audience about the virus. As a case in point, she reminded journalists that they must investigate the integrity of the tests being administered by the authorities. High body temperatures can be caused by many other things other than COVID-19. 

 “As a rule of the thumb, journalists must strive to deliver messages that empower people – use first person stories to illustrate how close and conquerable the virus is,” she asserted.

Ms Geloo, a veteran health journalists, told the audience that it is the work of the health writer to demystify the virus hence community messaging is key pointing out that even experienced writers must go back to the basics and ensure they simplify the messages.

“We need to talk about how we are going to live with it the way we have lived with HIV and make it a manageable disease and we must refocus HIV communication and make it work in the process we normalize it,” she added.

Journalists must not be confused by the science because there are a lot of experts hence they must be wary of the current overload of information. She added that it behoves the journalists to develop knowledge on this disease and continue to rely on the scientists to provide accurate information on what is happening. Finding reputable sources of information, she observed remains the key role of a health journalist and most importantly, “read, and read “and do a lot of research, for experienced hands have come from far and cannot afford to lose the plot on COVID-19.

Further, she said that journalists must understand how the vaccines are being conducted. Are they being done differently with that of HIV vaccine? 

“We must stay away from misinformation and stay away from speculation since we do not have the luxury of misinforming our audience,” she concluded.

A scientist on board, Dr. William Kilembe, Project Director, Zambia Emory HIV Research Project said that journalists ought to avoid misunderstanding and miscommunication. He added that they should pass useful information to the public such as the numbers of cases and deaths. Most importantly, he said that it is key for them to give out information on how the public can protect themselves against the virus to avoid its spread.

Marching on: How science cafes progressively build my health journalism career

By Odhiambo David I odhisdavid59@gmail.com

On May 13, 2020, I was priviledged to attend MESHA’s 20th science café, which to me was just the third in my life. This time round, it was a different experience altogether – it was online! At first, I fidgeted, having not used the software called Zoom before! 

My panic was easily solved by the MESHA leadership who gave us what they called a simple tutorial on how to install and navigate to the point of joining the zoom meeting through a link they had provided way before the online science media café! 

What else, we had been told that this café would be cross-border, meaning that other countries will also be tuning in together at the same time to listen to a panel of speakers. In the past, the four countries whose support come from avac – Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – held separate cafes at different times with different topics and speakers.

Like magic, I tuned in just on time as the moderator of the day, Mr Chaacha Mwita from Internews, an experienced journalist and editor, welcomed us all on board and introduced the first speaker of the day, Zarina Geloo, an award winning science journalist from Zambia who started by saying that she started reporting on HIV before it was even given a name.

Zarina cautioned journalists to always keep safe while writing and reporting on COVID19. As you start to write on COVID-19, you must be clear on how COVID-19 is or is not transmitted,” she said. She also urged the media to investigate the current testing being done and whether the kits are genuine. She added that journalists need to explain plainly that some of the symptoms such as high body temperature can be brought about by many things and should not be taken as the main symptom and an inclusive of coronavirus.

She pointed out that whereas the media is currently burdened by information overload, it is not an excuse for them to stray and publish or broadcast misleading and wrong facts as authentic professionalism must be held.

“A majority of you has been reporting complex HIV stories and interpreting large amounts of data. This experience must be applied snugly on reportage of COVID-19,” she said. 

She went ahead to urge journalists to communicate to their audiences with messages that empower and enable them to understand and accept that the virus will be with us for a long time just like HIV.  

She as well said that stigma has developed on COVID-19 patients considering the ways in which the health officers handle them. Fear is injected to the public by how the emergency response teams collect the handle the dead and the speed at which those found positive or are suspected of being positive are driven to either quarantine or isolation centres.

Dr William Kilembe, a Zambian scientist noted that the duration between COVID-19 infection and death is so short that a vaccine should be developed within a shorter period of time. He rubbished the mentality that Africans have hard immunity to COVID-19 and said that hard immunity can only be achieved with a vaccine. Therefore, a vaccine should and must be developed as soon as possible to break the spread of the virus.

Other than Zarina and Dr Kilembe, Ms Sylvia Nakasi of Uganda Network of AIDS Services Organisations also spoke emphasizing on the crucial role partnerships between the media and health advocates like herself play in empowering communities to consume and demand for health information in totality, right from the science to use of physical and financial resources.

Once again, as has happened to me ever since I attended my first science café on vaccines, I left the meeting having learnt that as a journalist, the interactions that I am exposed to, through the science cafes, prepare me for the task ahead, perhaps in the near future, perhaps for a long time to come.

The organizations which put the programme together were Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) which led its planning and coordination, Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) from Kenya, Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre from Zimbabwe and Health Journalists Network in Uganda (HEJNU) from Uganda. The Internews team led by Ida Jooste also played a lead role in the success of this café.