At the height of the pandemic, when misinformation and fear were widespread, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina launched her newsletter, “Your Local Epidemiologist,” with the stated goal of  providing a “direct line of ‘translated’ public health science to the local, national and international community.”

What began as a three-sentence email that she sent to colleagues, students and staff quickly evolved into an internationally recognized source of public health information. During a Q&A at Health Journalism 2024, Jetelina unpacked what she says are the biggest challenges in disseminating public health information and how governmental agencies succeeded — and failed — during the pandemic.

During the session moderated by AHCJ President Felice Freyer on Friday, Jetelina said the success of her newsletter revealed just how wide the gap is between the governmental agencies and researchers studying health, and the public. 

It’s an “inherent risk to communicate because you’re going to get it wrong one way or another,” Jetelina said. “That is a risk that a lot of government agencies aren’t willing to take.”

As an independent publisher, Jetelina acknowledged she has more freedom to talk directly to the public than agencies like the CDC. In fact, CDC representatives reached out to her for guidance on how to better communicate with the public during the pandemic. In her role as a senior scientific advisor, she says she is trying to change the culture from the inside.

Her challenge with the CDC has been “how do we take data and make it usable, actionable and understandable?” 

In the four years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Jetelina said there are still some unanswered questions about how governmental agencies responded to the crisis. 

One example Jetelina highlighted was how long it took public health agencies to recognize the virus was airborne. In the early months of the pandemic, more than 200 scientists signed a letter sent to the World Health Organization asserting that COVID-19 was spread through airborne particles and droplets, but it took more than a year for WHO to recognize this basic fact, which Jetelina said was a big mistake. 

Asked to assess how the CDC is handling the H5 bird flu, which has spread from cows to a handful of dairy workers in the U.S., Jetelina said she would give them a B minus. 

She commended the agency for its quick response to the bird flu, which included technical reports of genomic testing of the human cases, a landing page with numbers and weekly calls with journalists and experts. One unique challenge the bird flu poses, Jetelina said, was that it impacts both humans and animals. 

Another challenge she anticipates is communicating the necessary protections against bird flu, like masks, which were politicized during the COVID pandemic. 

For those combating misinformation, which Jetelina prefers to call “rumors,” she takes the tone of trying to convince people instead of engaging in “tribalism.” 

“I truly just want people to make the best decisions based on evidence rather than fear or rumors,” she said.