An Analysis of Government Communication in the United States During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Recommendations for Effective Government Health Risk Communication

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Do Kyun David Kim,Gary L. Kreps
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.363

398

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.363

© 2020 Policy Studies Organization

An Analysis of Government Communication in the

United States During the COVID‐19 Pandemic:

Recommendations for Effective Government Health Risk

Communication

Do Kyun David Kim and Gary L. Kreps

Governments throughout the world can learn many critical lessons from examining instances of

ineffective communication with the public during the global coronavirus disease (COVID‐19)pan-

demic. Ineffective government communication has resulted in a great deal of public confusion and

misunderstanding, as well as serious errors in responding to this evolving health threat, leading to

disastrous health and social outcomes for the public and prolonging the pandemic, especially within

the United States. This article uses systems theory as a template for analyzing government com-

munication in the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic, providing governments with

recommendations for establishing effective health risk communication strategies for use with the

public. The communication strategies offered here promote the delivery of relevant, accurate, and

sensitive information to key public groups, minimizing communication noise to guide desirable

coordinated actions. These communication strategies can be applied locally, nationally, and

internationally.

KEY WORDS: health risk communication, government communication, pandemic, strategic com-

munication, systems theory

Introduction

Over recent years, the world has experienced an increasing number of national

and global pandemics such as SARS (2003), H1N1 Flu (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola

(2014), Zika virus (2016), and now COVID‐19 (2019). Although concerns about such

pandemics have escalated, government preparation for the current public health

crisis has often been haphazard and largely insufficient due largely to confusion,

instability, misinformation, and poor planning, which have led to serious mistakes

in responding to the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article contends that effective

government communication performs major roles in successfully responding to

pandemics. The more challenging the pandemic is, the more attention needs to be

focused on effective government communication.

Abundant evidence exists from the pa st few decades that many local, natio nal,

and international governmental agencies have made serious publ ic communica-

tion errors in responding to comple x public health emergencies, dissem inating