Communication of Science and Public Health Information, Epidemiology and Management of COVID-19: Lessons learnt.

In December, 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was discovered in Wuhan, China and has now spread across the world and was declared a pandemic. The disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents various symptoms in infected people ranging from mild to severe respiratory illnesses, headaches, loss of taste among other symptoms. Because it is a new disease, scientists are learning more about it each day. The outbreak of COVID - 19 has continued the globe has devastating effects on the public health of society and worst of it all has globally adversely disrupted global socioeconomic development of many nations especially developing nations. The most vulnerable have been the elderly people and those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, cancer hypertensive among others. Globally thousands of lives have been lost, the worst being in Europe and America. Africa, with its poor public health capacity has not been spared by this pandemic. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the spread of COVID-19, can be prevented if the public adhere to public health guidelines of always masking up, sanitizing, social distancing, avoiding congested public places among other measures. To control the spread of the spread of the virus, two Statutory Instruments were signed prescribing various measures aimed at containing the spread of the virus which included wearing masks, hand sanitizing, social distancing, and isolation of COVID - 19 patients among others. Various other intervention measures have been instituted such as public awareness campaigns through various media. Despite these interventions, adherence to the guidelines still remains a challenge due to various socioeconomic factors. Thus, there is need to investigate and learn lessons on how despite measures put in place, the public are not complying with measures. The main aim of this assignment is to communicate science and public health information, lessons learnt, epidemiology and management of COVID-19. The specific questions that need to be resolved include: is the available information about COVID19 adequate? How effective are the public awareness campaigns on COVID-19? How effective is the communication medium used? Are journalists communicating the right information to the public? What are the misconceptions about COVID-19 among the various sections in society? What best practices and lessons have we learnt on how to address COVID-19 pandemic? Expected Outcomes i. Document evidence-based lessons and best practices for science communication, education and awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia. ii. Interventions and experiences put in place by public health experts, scientists, researchers, activists, and leaders during the COVID -19 pandemic to reach hard to reach communities with facts and public health information. iii. Lessons learnt on from experiences, such as the Ebola and cholera outbreak in comparison with the managing the COVID-19 pandemic. iv. Development of some gender sensitive media content to reach out marginalised, misinformed and disadvantaged groups and communities in informal. v. Conduct some dissemination programmes to share lessons learnt with policy makers, marginalised communities and academia