Design for extreme scalability: A wordless, globally scalable COVID-19 prevention animation for rapid public health communication

www.jogh.org • doi: 10.7189/jogh.10.010343 1 June 2020 • Vol. 10 No. 1 • 010343 To scale globally, public health communication interventions must capture the public’s attention, meet them where they consume information and convey reliable messages in ways that are accessible across languages, ages, cultural affiliations and education levels. Novel approaches are needed to ensure that such interventions are developed and deployed quickly, sidestepping the typical delays associated with sluggish public health campaigns. Delays in producing compelling, evidence-based health communication can leave a vacuum that is quickly filled with misinformation. In the case of COVID-19, we watched the social media stratosphere explode with deceptive, anecdotal health messages that played on paranoia, fear and stigmatization, further aggravating a global state of unease and uncertainty. Social media personalities suggested anecdotal preventive strategies, ranging from the ineffective to the life-threatening.