(1n) I’m blessed to work at NIH, which places many of the best biomedical researchers at my fingertips.
But, this thread is for another resource that we at NIH are privileged to have:

communications teams.

(Hey Nissa & Jenn... yes, they see my weave tweets too https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat">)

#scicomm

(2/n) Yesterday in prep for @ac360, I said a couple of words that they reminded me were maybe to “science-y”. I’m so grateful for that as I practice constant consciousness around speaking with (not to) the public. So I’m sharing for my #scicomm folks who aim to speak more lay...

(3/n)
“at risk”

While scientists understand that pulling the trigger on clinical vaccine manufacturing 4 days after a virus sequence is released is an “all risk” (financial) investment, to the public it just seems like we didn’t know wtf we were doing & thus “risking” safety.

(3/n)
“animal model”

While scientists understand that “animal models” are vetted animals that when infected in the lab recapitulate some level of human disease, enough to allow us to test vaccines, but to the public it just seems like we are idk using animal “models”.

(4/n)
“SARS-CoV-2

While scientists understand that this is the virus that causes COVID-19, to the public saying “the virus that causes COVID-19” in full helps to connect the virus to the disease seamlessly, without needing to explain the connection. https://twitter.com/KizzyPhD/status/1238937239033446405?s=20">https://twitter.com/KizzyPhD/... https://twitter.com/kizzyphd/status/1238937239033446405">https://twitter.com/kizzyphd/...

(5/n)
“efficacy”

While scientists understand that this is the end goal of late phase human trials, to the public it is best to just state the endpoint frankly: does the shit protect people from infection or nah?

(6/n)
“PI”

While scientists understand that “principal investigator” is the scientist under whom the research happens; s/he is the owner of the funding and the mastermind of the top-down view of the research... and essentially the boss. So, just say “boss”.

And on that note, my boss texted me, “You did greathttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😄" title="Smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes">” plusssss “you better have that perspective edited and in my inbox when I awake or else https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤨" title="Face with raised eyebrow" aria-label="Emoji: Face with raised eyebrow">”

So GRIND TIME, tweet-ologists!
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🦠" title="Microbe" aria-label="Emoji: Microbe">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💚" title="Green heart" aria-label="Emoji: Green heart"> – at NIH Vaccine Research Center