POLICY PAPER: Health and Public communication in the era of conspiracy theories

Milan Urbaník in his policy paper addresses public health communication in the era of widespread conspiracy theories. He focuses on the vaccination against COVID-19 and presents the most important attributes of a communication campaign that would challenge disinformation surrounding the vaccination.

The Czech government is under increased pressure to persuade citizens to vaccinate themselves against Covid-19. The strong presence of anti-vaccination movements, as well as general scepticism of Czech public against vaccination represents a serious challenge for public communication. To communicate effectively in the context of conspiracy theories, the Czech Ministry of Education should follow simple best practices to persuade citizens to vaccinate. The messages communicated should be clear and simple, delivered by reliable and familiar messengers. Furthermore, the right channels should be considered, and various governmental institutions should be consistent in their messages. In addition to the short-term adjustments, the Ministry of Health should consider employing or training health communication experts that would design, pre-test and evaluate health campaigns to realise the full persuasive potential of health communication.

You can read the policy paper under the PDF button. 

Milan Urbaník
Junior Researcher

Expertise: behavioural science, education, public policy