COVID-19: Why NCDC’s communication crisis must improve

As the number of people exposed to the risk of COVID-19 in Nigeria increases, healthcare providers and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have a lot on their shoulders and we must all understand that as investigations are ongoing about managing the pandemic.

The ability to curb and stop the spread might hinge on collaboration and coordination with key partners and stakeholders, however, effective communication plays a critical role in the overall success

In today’s 24-hour news cycle and digital media environment, people constantly receive information from many sources; from print, electronic and social media, and indeed, more than ever, people want to know what is happening, who is affected, how they got infected, among others.

To a large extent, the NCDC has done its best to provide the media with information and answers about the pandemic, however, because of the ways which news is disseminated of late, the public health authorities need to be pragmatic in the way they communicate with the media and the citizens.

The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu, during one of his daily briefings of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19, said: “we will eventually exit this stage and return to our normal lives but the stage is still a while to come.”

The DG mentioned that the agency is doing all it can to support the states, pointing out that the states also have their own responsibilities, although they are working together to curb the spread of the virus.

In a country where all the fundamentals of a functional health system are lacking, it will be wise that we all remain firm in the way we observe all precautionary measures advised by the health authorities as we certainly do not have the capacity to deal with an outbreak.

Citizens that have refused to obey the precautionary measures are the real threats. They are either in denial of the effects of their refusal or ignorant of the risk involved. NCDC has the sole responsibility of ensuring that citizens, irrespective of class, are duly informed about the risk and consequences of not staying at home.

There seems to be a little bit of compliance with the elite. Research has narrowed down the majority of people who deliberately or otherwise flout the directives of the health authorities and the Federal Government in Nigeria to those who do not have access to social media platforms. A fraction of these people are on radio while a good percentage are in their various communities, relying on the community heads to pass down information.

It will surprise you that in this day and age when community plans are even available on the internet to just convert into a plan that can be implemented to essentially educate this cadre of people, we still struggle as a country to communicate adequately to these citizens.

The general public’s perception of risk often does not match science-based reality, if the public does not perceive risk they won’t respond adequately. Trust is the key principle in risk communication. Without trust, the public will not believe or act on information/directives provided by the health agencies or the Federal Government.

There is an urgent NEED to break down the communication barriers and shake up rigid communication channels established over the years, especially from the government to the people. Press releases and television news are no longer a reliable way to reach a multitude of people at the same time, especially during a pandemic.

Communication materials and messages should be culturally competent, it must be understood by and applicable to individuals from different cultures and ethnicities

The NCDC also needs to foster the synergy between them and the necessary agencies responsible for managing the pandemic, especially the ministry of humanitarian affairs, which is the ministry in charge of palliatives. Essentially, their role is to distribute relief packages to the poorest of the poorest in the country.

Interestingly, 95.9 million people in Nigeria live in extreme poverty and this represents 48 per cent of the population and to a large extent, many (if not all) of these people are illiterates or poorly educated.

Naturally, human beings perceive risk differently from experts who mitigate the risk, depending on how likely they think the actual hazard will affect them personally and their beliefs about how severe the harm might be. Perception of health risk has been said to be tied around the degree to which people feel alarmed or outraged. In most cases, until the virus causes a high level of worry or anxiety, which leads to a huge number of casualties, people are not likely to entirely comply and obey directives.

Still on effective communication, the  NCDC platforms are expected to have updated, clear and concise messages that address everyone’s essential questions and concerns.

for instance, on 4th of April, 2020, the NCDC admitted an error in a tweet saying the case had been recorded earlier and it was recounted.

CORRECTION 1/4

On 3rd of April 2020, we reported 26 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. An error has been discovered in this report as follows:

There were 25 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. The 26th case was a repeat result of a previously confirmed case and NOT a new case pic.twitter.com/oq2FA6zvpY

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 4, 2020

Fast forward to five days after, another error on its Twitter handle read: “Yesterday, we erroneously reported 2 new cases in Bauchi. Following further review, we can confirm that these were repeat tests for previously confirmed cases.

“We apologise for this error and remain committed to ensuring transparent and accurate reporting of test results.”

At a time when Nigeria is desperate for authoritative information about the coronavirus pandemic, the repeated misinformation and erroneous release of wrong numbers of recorded cases in several states by the disease control agency on several occasions have made people uncomfortable, even though the agency apologized on each occasion.

Nigerians have expressed their disappointment on Twitter and Facebook implying that they will soon lose total trust for the agency if this keeps repeating itself.

When communication is seamless, it helps manage people’s expectations and fears and makes it more likely that they’ll follow future instructions from officials during the crisis. If it’s done poorly, though, it can undermine trust in the institutions

Information should be early, empathetic, accurate, and effective. Early communication will help limit misinformation and rumours that could contribute to confusion and fear.

People are locked down in their various homes indefinitely with so many uncertainties, and the least the government can do is to ensure the citizens have up to date information and not only on the number of deaths and increasing number of infected citizens but transparency and accountability in the way that the spread is being curbed.

Even as we speak, health experts have come on national television to express their scepticism about the NCDC protocol while reports about testing capacity are also not clear to people.

We need to be more deliberate and intentional in the way we communicate, and this also applies to the citizens. The middle class, I believe, are promoting violence and anger under the guise of defending the vulnerable and ordinary man.

While it is important that the people who cannot afford to stay at home receive their relief packages, the rest of us should advocate more on our various platforms, the risk in not staying at home.

The World Health Organization (WHO) believes it is now time to acknowledge that communication expertise has become very essential to pandemic outbreak control. Until Nigeria recognises that there is need for a balance in the way we embrace the foreign practices and tailor our issues, challenges as well as the solution to our local territory, we will continue to have the same issues of disengagement between the government and the people.

I personally think most of the major issues we face in Nigeria can be solved by just effective communication to the right person at the right time. When citizens call out the government on transparency, more often than not, it is, perhaps, a communication problem although many will argue that it is typically corruption. But what we do not understand is the role of communication in anti-corruption.

Empathetic communication brings about reassurance, empowers people and reduces emotional turmoil as it helps build understanding and also guides the public, media, healthcare providers and other groups in responding to COVID-19 and complying with public health recommendations.

Unfortunately, there has been an intolerable gap in what we know about heath and what health really is in Nigeria. One of the most important preparedness measures the NCDC can take is assembling a proper response team with a plan for getting critical information out to the public IN TIME.

There has been no strategic plan and enough collaboration with the state to reach the remote areas. The social media pages of the NCDC needs more engagement with the public, especially on Instagram and WhatsApp – there isn’t much information out there on how the recently affected patients got infected with COVID-19.

There is a need for words of appreciation and encouragement to the public and partnership with the right credible voices that can reach the grassroots and represent the NCDC appropriately.

The disease control centre should also refine short messages that work for Nigeria, bringing empathy into the messages both at the top and bottom levels. Nigerians want to be informed about the actions taken, the reasons for and results of those actions. There is a need for a spokesperson other than the director-general himself, this will certainly make a huge difference.

The environment surrounding an outbreak is unique in all of public health. Outbreaks are frequently marked by uncertainty, confusion, and a sense of urgency, to communicate effectively in this time of uncertainty, multiple components need to be in place.

It is our responsibility as individuals to support in any way that we can to see that we fight the common enemy (COVID -19) as a nation. The behaviour, culture and social change can be difficult to adopt but the reality is we all must sacrifice now so we can win the war against coronavirus.