Risk management

Communication was key when explaining the pros and cons of a Covid vaccine.

- MARC WILSON

The dust is starting to settle over the carcass of the main teaching year, though it feels like I'm still whacking it with a stick because it keeps twitching. Marking is the gift that just keeps on giving. And it means we've reached that part of the year where I've got a bunch of things going on which I agreed to long enough ago that I've forgotten about.

One of those things is a double-header talk and "workshop" around science and media, with guest speaker John Kerr talking about our own work and research experiences in the context of science and media.

Kerr is a senior research fellow and science lead for the public health communication centre at the University of Otago, Wellington. Full disclosure, I've worked with him on and off since 2016.

Kerr has a lot of experience in communication as a scientist and as a person working to support scientists in their communication endeavours. In 2020, he got a job working for the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the UK, and headed there just in time for a lockdown that lasted about 18 months.