Talking to Our Citizens: National Health Organizations (Mis) communications in the United Kingdom and United States During the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the ways in which the United Kingdom and the United States communicate health information to their respective citizens. While this article is not limited to the study of COVID-19 health communications, we look at the institutions that were tasked with communication responsibilities regarding the COVID-19 virus in the United States and United Kingdom. To highlight the possible repercussions on the general public of each nation, we present a review of the institutions of communication as a gateway for discussion and an opportunity to unveil discrepancies and inequitable forms of communication. These institutions are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. We consider the language and vocabulary used within these organizations’ mission statements, privacy policies, digital channels and platforms, regulations for advice and feedback from federal agents as well the general public, and accessibility. We use an intersectional lens to explore the nuanced and multifarious impacts of communication praxis and aim to discuss how these have led to limitations of passive and comprehensive communication influences in both nations and their relation to health infrastructure. By understanding the constraints of health infrastructure on the current disenfranchised citizens in both the United States and United Kingdom, we can register the adverse behavioral imprint on individuals as a result and finally call for further research into the impact of reconstructive governmental health communications.

Keywords

COVID-19 intersectionality CDC NIH NHS health behavior

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