Online Program

Lessons Learned from Becoming a Public Communicator of Statistics and Research Result During the COVID-19 Epidemic (305290)

Keywords: Communicating statistics, news media, Covid-19

The Covid19 pandemic turned the world upside down in early 2020 Danish, and the instantaneous demand from public media for daily statistical commentary, research evaluation, and predictions took the unprepared Danish statistical community – which had existed mostly under the public radar - by surprise.

The Danish statisticians were propelled into a role where they had to explain to the general public what exponential growth “really means”, why the large Danish face mask study could not be used as final evidence for whether face masks were beneficial, and why the sensitivity and specificity of PCR and lateral flow tests typically did not provide the information, that the public was after. This was in "competition" with the increase in armchair statisticians and epidemiologists who all were eager to contribute to the understanding of what was going on.

I will present tips, tricks and lessons learned on how to communicate statistical results through the public news media, when space, time, and nuances are limited. We will discuss how to build a network of science and news reporters and how to maneuver in a field where the media are typically chasing news and extreme opinions.