Science and Risk Communication During Outbreaks: From Science Communicators to Journalists

Name: Science and Risk Communication During Outbreaks: From Science Communicators to Journalists
Start: 2022-09-27T14:30:00-0400
End: 2022-09-27T17:00:00-0400

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Communicating science and risk during infectious disease outbreaks and the subsequent translation into sustainable policies and for the public to understand and modify any behaviors is a cornerstone of effective outbreak control. The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing monkeypox outbreak have shown both good practice examples as well as challenges in effective science and risk communication. This event will cover the diverse roles of science communicators, from science communicators to journalists.

Please join the Belfer Center's Dr. Syra Madad in conversation with a panel of Science Communicators and Journalists.

While this in-person event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization.

Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2022 Time: 02:30pm - 05:00pm Location: Taubman Building - Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor

About the Speakers

Dr. Isaac Bogoch is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medicine, and an Infectious Diseases specialist at the Toronto General Hospital with a focus on tropical diseases, HIV, and general infectious diseases. Dr. Bogoch works at the intersection of clinical medicine, epidemiology, public health, policy, and security. He divides his clinical and research time between Toronto and several countries in Africa and Asia evaluating strategies to mitigate the impact of emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Bogoch works closely with governments and organizations on their COVID-19 response, including vaccine rollout, community engagement, and communications strategies.

Helen Branswell is a senior writer at STAT, covering infectious diseases and global health. Branswell joined STAT at its 2015 launch. Previously, she worked for The Canadian Press, where she was medical reporter from 2000 to 2015. Branswell was a 2004 CDC Knight Fellow, when she embedded in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for three months. She was a 2011 Nieman Global Health Fellow at Harvard, focusing on polio eradication. She won the 2020 George Polk Award for Public Service and with colleagues was a 2020 Pulitzer finalist for breaking news for coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. She won the 2021 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.

Doctor Mike is a board-certified family medical physician and social media influencer with an audience of over 23 million followers. For the last 5 years he's battled medical misinformation and educated viewers on their health on his YouTube channel, which has amassed over 10 million subscribers and nearly 2 billion views. When he's not making YouTube videos, Mike enjoys life in New York City with his dog, Bear, and commutes to New Jersey to treat patients several days a week.

Dr. Raven Baxter — better known as Dr. Raven the Science Maven — is an internationally acclaimed American educator and molecular biologist known for effortlessly merging science with pop culture. Using her magnetic personality, she challenges the status quo to prove that science communicators aren’t all one and the same. She is highly sought after for speaking engagements, and brand partnerships.

Dr. Baxter currently has partnerships from OLAY, Brooks Running, Regeneron and is often collaborating with NASA. She has been awarded Forbes 30 under 30, Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40, and most recently recognized as a Mastermind in AfroTech’s inaugural Future 50 list.

Raised by a single mother in North Carolina and New York, Dr. Baxter’s curiosity to explore the world around her at a young age developed into a lifelong affinity for science. She joyfully disrupts traditional cultural perceptions about scientists via producing viral hip-hop videos such as her “Antibodyody Antibody Song” or her “Wipe it Down” to teach science lessons to the masses.

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, Pulitzer prize finalist, and director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative where she maps America's information deserts, studies information inequity as a social determinant of health, and tracks the spread of false information about science. Seema served as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service and as a health and science reporter for The Dallas Morning News and medical analyst for NBC-5 and CNN. She is clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and visiting professor of crisis communication at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Seema is the author of five books including her latest, What the Fact?! Finding the Truth in All the Noise (Simon and Schuster, September 2022) a young adult's guide to surviving misinformation; and the debut poetry collection, If God Is A Virus, (Haymarket, 2021) which was hailed a Best Book of 2021 by The New York Public Library. Her reporting appears in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The San Francisco Chronicle, WIRED, Scientific American, and other outlets. Seema received her medical degree from the University of Cambridge and trained in journalism at the University of Toronto.

Dan Diamond is a national health reporter for The Washington Post, focused on accountability, federal agencies and the coronavirus pandemic. He joined The Post in 2021 after covering the Trump administration for Politico, where he won a George Polk award for investigating political interference in the pandemic response. His investigations into a range of topics, including Trump officials' use of taxpayer-funded charter jets, not-for-profit hospitals' spending and how Congress stripped Pacific Islanders of their health coverage, have also been honored with several journalism awards.