A few days into the Corona lockdown, my 85-year-old mother calls me to discuss her concerns over bats in her ceiling. These vermin invade houses, hiding in the space between the roof and the ceiling. They are a nuisance because of their tendency to deposit their acrid-smelling droppings in the ceiling and annoying screeching at dusk as they prepare to venture out. This time, my mother’s concern was whether she could get coronavirus from the bats. Apparently, she had heard a discussion on the radio associating coronavirus with bats.
When news of coronavirus exploded, two distinct messages were communicated:. it was a deadly, highly contagious virus that had originated from China. As time went by, more information on the seriousness of the unfolding health crisis was released. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) it causes was described as a flu-like. It was said that those who the disease died a rather sudden and painful death after their lungs got clogged up.
The aged and those with underlying illnesses were singled out as most vulnerable and so my mum, and many like her, with her high blood pressure, arthritis and weak heart could see herself completely implicated. Simultaneously, information about the Chinese was filtering across, alleging that this virus had been associated with the ‘strange’ meats they eat –bats and other creatures came up. Prior to this virus, the Chinese had received bad press over profligacy in the deal to build and operate the standard gauge (SGR) railway. There were also stories peddled on social media insinuating that the Chinese manufactured coronavirus as a biological weapon to get even with America. Myths, half-truths and innuendo flew far and wide.
Quite rapidly, the coronavirus crisis deepened. The death toll from it, as well as the speed at which it was claiming lives began to proliferate on the communication channels. Thousands were reportedly dying in China, but data was suppressed. Then European death roll began to rise and with it the incessant panic buzzer. While China seems like way out there, in our imagination Europe is just next door. We were smack in the middle of a fully-fledged Public Health crisis.
Information started flowing in an uncoordinated, unstructured, non-strategic manner. It was, and still is, impossible to differentiate fact from fantasy and fiction. Social media was awash with news of deaths, herbal remedies, avoidance strategies, conspiracy theories and statistical modelling of how the virus would spread. The public were ordered to wear masks and to cough and sneeze in a particular way, avoid physical contact, wash hands with soap and alcohol-based sanitizers and eventually were urged to stay at home.
A while later, a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed, sending a chilling message, as did the quarantining of ‘suspected cases’, that the crisis was deepening. Then the D-day came when Kenya announced its first COVID-19 case and a totally different reality sank. The message was loud and clear, coronavirus is here.
By the time the first death, which was soon followed by the cessation of movement in and out of certain localities, the gravity of coronavirus was all over us. Law enforcement agencies doubled their zeal in punishing and arresting curfew-hour breakers, those not wearing masks and individuals not obeying social distancing. The verbal and non-verbal communication began to unravel at this point. At one point, the state paraded ‘recovered’ coronavirus patients and the stunt torpedoed majestically.
The Ministry of Health holds daily briefings on the coronavirus, at first led by the quarrelsome Cabinet Secretary backed by a posse of clinicians, and, later, at intervals by the lieutenants, with the Head of State chiming in to emphasize the seriousness of COVID-19 situation and deepen the measures aimed at managing the crisis. We are stuck in crisis mode, and crisis communication while the crisis is actually over. We are in a new normal that call for unusual measures for use to survive the turmoil caused by the crisis.
If COVID-19 was the Titanic, it had already hit the iceberg is taking in water and sinking. At this juncture the Captain of the ship tells the passengers what THEY need to do, HOW they need to do it and makes available the rafts and safety vests. It’s all hands on deck for survival. The danger is no longer posed by the virus only (the iceberg) but the sinking ship –the economy, the life-affirming social systems such as hospital and schools. At this point we need to delve into development communication mode, social mobilization, community engagement education and advocacy.
The situation is now beyond clinicians and the Ministry of Health. It is where development communicators come in. Our communication must now respectfully engage with Kenyans on the meaning and implication of the ‘new-normal’. This is the time for the persuasive, logical yet emotional communication that appeals to the head and the heart about the new normal.
Communication needs to separate the myths from the facts; my mother needs to understand the connections between the bat and this new disease. She needs non-stigmatizing information that clarifies to her why people in her age-group are more vulnerable so that she knows how to relate to her grand-children and fellow villagers.
Communication on prevention and management now needs to focus on normalizing and building self-efficacy in the ‘new normal’. The messaging now needs to logically challenge each one of us to find self-motivation to wear a mask when in public like we did with wearing condoms and using treated mosquito nets. Communities must de-construct deeply revered cultural practices like casually hugging and hand-shaking, burial practices or reason to maintain a metre distance while queuing at the bank, matatu stop, or while receiving sacrament in church or offering prayer at the mosque.
Communities must be challenged to find ways to avoid or manage mingling at weddings, funerals and political rallies because these must go on in the new normal. We must adopt as routine and normalize handwashing with soap, integrating it into our daily activities. We must adopt sneezing, coughing, laughing and speaking etiquette from now onwards.
The public must learn the correct, scientifically proven facts about the virus and the disease it causes. We must learn what to do when coronavirus strikes. Only with this knowledge, can the people eparate the wheat from the chaff that social media throws at everyone. While maintaining all the public health measures, we must still engage in activities that transform our county and our people from poverty through work (at home or elsewhere) and lead ourselves into a dynamic state of economic growth, leading to greater social equity and the fulfilment of the human potential.
Eventually, science will find a way to eradicate COVID-19 as happened with smallpox and rinderpest and soon polio. The development in vaccine technology will help manage COVID-19 as happened with measles. Just like we did with HIV, that called for social and behaviour change communication to get to where we are today, we, as development communication professionals, need to ease into the driving seat of normalizing COVID-19 and life with COVID-19.