Science and technology engagement: Supporting public understanding of cutting-edge

In December 2019, an infectious outbreak in Wuhan, China led to the discovery of the pneumonia-causing, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its disease, COVID-19, that would soon be declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Corona virus family is known to cause asymptomatic or mild disease in humas such as common colds, but occasionally zoonotic strains have jumped from animal reservoirs to humans causing severe disease as exemplified by SARS-CoV in 2003 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012. Considerable effort has been employed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic including infection prevention and control measures, candidate drugs to improve the clinical outcomes of severely ill patients and vaccine production. Despite the promising progress towards ending the pandemic, there has been an overwhelming amount of disinformation and misinformation to the public that was termed an "infodemic" by the WHO. This wrong information prevents public involvement in limiting the spread of the virus and in creating innovative solutions. To Counter the spread of unreliable COVID-19 related information, HealthEdu LTD (henceforth referred to as HeathEdu) science communicators comprised of PhD level Scientists, Clinicians, Public health and ICT experts, will identify and report on research studies that are sufficiently noteworthy based on well established measures of rigor and reproducibility, and that satisfy one of the following criteria: a) discovery of a mechanism(s) of disease causation; b) epidemiological assessment of disease prevalence; c) identification and/or assessment of a potential treatment, vaccine, medical device, or a novel diagnostic procedure; and d) innovative biomedical, technological, or epidemiological approaches that can be feasibly applied to diagnose, monitor prevalence, or directly tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Expected Outputs  A frequently asked questions and answers section updated monthly according to cutting-edge COVID-19 knowledge and the questions of the East African public (health professionals-inclusive), will be availed by HealthEdu experts using an already existing online platform.  Through HealthEdu mass media partners, hard-to-reach communities will be engaged through radio and televised interviews with different experts that will engage these communities and answer their questions concerning COVID-19.  An online collaborative platform built by HealthEdu where scientists, medical doctors, public health and ICT experts will help to verify information that may be shared with the public by regional journalists. Using this platform, Journalists will also train the HealthEdu members on how to better engage and share their knowledge with the layman.