Synthesis of existing and developing COVID 19 research knowledge for Media and the public.

Communication has been identified as the new frontier of the fight against COVID-19, with a rising infodemic affecting the entire world. The concern has been the rising levels of misinformation, affecting the ability for publics to access information, for knowledge acquisition and decision making to reduce the effects of the pandemic. In traditional media the burden of authenticating information lay with the source of information. This was guided by journalistic principles and ethics, or laws governing provision of public information. The Society of Journalist professional's guidebook states "A journalist has responsibility to seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent". With the public relying on specific media channels, media was obligated to be ethical. Other sources of information e.g. government, privately owned institutions were guided by laws, obligating them to provide information to the public. With the proliferation of social media, the burden of verifying information has shifted to the consumer. With focus shifting to how fast information gets to the consumer, the value of factual, comprehensive and objectivity has been replaced with shallow, one sided, opinion laden, sometimes false information. The COVID 19 pandemic has brought the challenges of communicating science in the digital era starkly to the fore. The uproar caused by a French doctor's suggestions for COVID 19 Vaccine trials be done on Africans, had many likening this to Africans being used as 'guinea pigs' for Western Medicine. This is not without cause, the reminder of the dark history of "western medicine" in the continent is well reflected in the Musa Okwonga's article in Quartz Africa. "The example of C.J. Marion Sims in the 19th century who experimented on African women conducting surgeries without anesthesia". A more recent example is the case of Pfizer with a drug clinical trial gone wrong in Nigeria. Though these cases cannot be generalized, these deep-rooted beliefs tend to put most of the African population on the defense. Even though these experiences cast a shadow on the benefits of research collaboration of Africa with the rest of the world, they do not tell of the success stories. Out of this collaboration's solutions have been developed for Africa's endemic and emerging health challenges. This includes continued research outputs addressing interventions for malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition and HIV, development, testing, deployment and the measuring of the impact of the pneumonia, Polio, HIV and Ebola vaccines among others. This has also seen increased numbers of African research leaders taking lead in developing African solutions. Expected Outputs Improved public understanding of COVID 19 related research • Increased participation in research discourse by public • Increased accountability of researchers to the public • Enhanced appreciation and respect for researchers by the public • Establishing the Media advisory board • Public support of emerging research initiatives in Africa