WHO policy brief: Building trust through risk communication and community engagement, 14 September 2022

Overview

Key points 

• Credible, trusted, relevant, timely, accessible and actionable heath information is crucial for the acceptance and adoption of life-saving interventions.
• Risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) approaches and interventions that effectively engage with affected populations have proven crucial to COVID-19 emergency preparedness and response plans.
• Improving trust through strategic communication and co-developing solutions that best fit community needs are critical to ending the emergency of COVID-19 in all countries.
• Member States are encouraged to maintain RCCE teams at current emergency levels to sustain operational readiness for unpredictable events in the context of the COVID-19 emergency and future emergencies.
• It remains critical that communities, under the guidance of public health authorities, use public health and social measures (PHSM), such as staying home when feeling unwell, testing for SARS- CoV-2 and isolating if testing positive. As the virus continues to circulate intensely around the world, people should continue to avoid crowds, distance where possible, wear a well-fitted mask when they cannot maintain distancing and when indoors, improve ventilation and clean hands as measures to reduce risk of infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. 

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Corrigenda, 20 September 2022