Participants 3
What can HIV and AIDS teach us about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19? A lot!
In turn, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are also teaching us lessons for the HIV response.
Health journalists have already mastered the language of public health (when does a rapidly spreading disease constitute an ‘outbreak’, an ‘epidemic’ or a ‘pandemic’, for example?), as well as much of the science underpinning public and clinical-health measures. This meant, when SARS-CoV-2 began making headlines around the world, there were journalists already prepared, who knew “the right questions to ask in terms of learning about a new public health threat,” says Anna Miti, who guides journalists via Media Science Cafés at the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre in Zimbabwe.
This lesson deepens the science connection and provides resources for science journalists to use their skills to cover any new pathogen.
The five topics in this lesson include:
- The HIV and SARS-CoV-2 connection: similarities and differences
- Science on the Spot
- A COVID Vaccine
- Preparedness: the next Pathogen?
- Resources