1, Government messaging has become progressively hyperbolic and confusing. Balance and perspective is in short supply. As a result, the information we receive often feels alarming and frightening.

2, Trust is a vital component of effective public messaging, erosion of it is deeply concerning.Disconnection between governments, local level management and society. Information given without context is harmful. A recent advisory report suggests
https://t.co/ES5e93BGyT
3, “ministers adopt a more straightforward approach to communicating with the public, taking care not to send out conflicting messages, admitting mistakes, foregoing “hyperbolic language and rhetoric” and adopting “an open dialogue rather than speaking at the public”.
4, Has this advice been heeded?
Did yesterday's UK briefing clearly communicate information accurately and clearly?
Was the information presented openly?
https://t.co/aA2fCRuKwj
5.The news of an increased mortality risk with the UK variant is based upon conclusions from a Nervtag meeting held on Thursday.
Full report here. https://t.co/0WrqG5OiWl
Concerns that the variant may be more deadly should be taken seriously.However, the evidence drawn from the paper is weak. Nervtag concluded that there is a “realistic possibility”that it could be more deadly.This means that scientists are 40-50% confident that something is true.
7, Clear, accurate and understandable government messaging is essential. Information should refer to evidence and offer analysis to convey complex and complicated issues. Without this the communications drive public and media panic.
https://t.co/XulQF2aMSX
8,The format and delivery of the briefings have often been criticised by the press, by advisory groups and the by public. https://t.co/3zCukD2sHU
9, At the time of the Downing Street Briefing the WHO were also holding a conference. Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergency programme, appealed for the public to 'remain calm around the issues of these variants'. 40.12.
https://t.co/dLgpSaw02k
10, Without honest and balanced public messaging, that effectively conveys risk and that draws upon evidence and analysis, the public trust in government decisions and it’s advice, will continue to decline.
https://t.co/bZnVHxy3BU
End

More from Government

This is a good piece on fissures within the GOP but I think it mischaracterizes the Trump presidency as “populist” & repeats a story about how conservatives & the GOP expelled the far-right in the mid-1960s that is actually far more complicated. /1

I don’t think the sharp opposition between “hard-edge populism” & “conservative orthodoxy” holds. Many of the Trump administration’s achievements were boilerplate conservatism. Its own website trumpets things like “massive deregulation,” tax cuts, etc. /2

https://t.co/N97v85Bb79


The claim that Buckley and “key GOP politicians banded together to marginalize anti-Communist extremism and conspiracy-mongering” of the JBS has been widely repeated lately but the history is more complicated. /3


This tweet by @ThePlumLineGS citing a paper by @sam_rosenfeld and @daschloz on the "porous" boundary between conservatives, the GOP and the far-right is relevant in this context.


This is a separate point but I find it interesting that Gaetz, like Roy Moore did In his failed Senate campaign, disses McConnell. What are their actual policy differences? MM supported taking health care away from millions, a tax cut for the rich, conservative judges, etc. /5

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