NewsPronto

 
The Times


.

USA Conversation

The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

Why using fear to promote COVID-19 vaccination and mask wearing could backfire

  • Written by Amy Lauren Fairchild, Dean and Professor, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University
imageImages of death have been used as a scare tactic in public health campaigns for years.Buda Mendes/Getty Images

You probably still remember public service ads that scared you: The cigarette smoker with throat cancer. The victims of a drunk driver. The guy who neglected his cholesterol lying in a morgue with a toe tag.

With new, highly transmissible...

Read more: Why using fear to promote COVID-19 vaccination and mask wearing could backfire

More Articles ...

  1. To make the US auto fleet greener, increasing fuel efficiency matters more than selling electric vehicles
  2. Thawing permafrost is full of ice-forming particles that could get into atmosphere
  3. Travelers coming from Italy may have driven first US COVID-19 wave more than those from China, study suggests
  4. Why it takes 2 shots to make mRNA vaccines do their antibody-creating best – and what the data shows on delaying the booster dose
  5. A universal influenza vaccine may be one step closer, bringing long-lasting protection against flu
  6. Why the next major hurdle to ending the pandemic will be about persuading people to get vaccinated
  7. Can Biden fix the vaccine mess? An expert says yes
  8. 5 websites to help educate about the horrors of the Holocaust
  9. Biden faces the world: 5 foreign policy experts explain US priorities – and problems – after Trump
  10. People take better care of public places when they feel like they have a stake in them
  11. Expert in fluid dynamics explains how to reduce the risk of COVID-19 airborne transmission inside a car
  12. The problem with India's 'love jihad' laws
  13. Death threats and intimidation of public officials signal Trump's autocratic legacy
  14. Intense scrutiny of Chinese-born researchers in the US threatens innovation
  15. What is an executive order, and why don't presidents use them all the time?
  16. How new voters and Black women transformed Georgia's politics
  17. Incitement to violence is rarely explicit – here are some techniques people use to breed hate
  18. Beetle parents manipulate information broadcast from bacteria in a rotting corpse
  19. How Biden's dogs could make the Oval Office a workplace with less stress and better decision-making
  20. Think US evangelicals are dying out? Well, define evangelicalism ...
  21. Feeling relatively poor increases support for women in the workplace – but men still don't want them making household decisions
  22. TikTok's sea chanteys – how life under the pandemic has mirrored months at sea
  23. The body's fight against COVID-19 explained using 3D-printed models
  24. Harriet Tubman: Biden revives plan to put a Black woman of faith on the $20 bill
  25. Women's health is better when women have more control in their society
  26. Why COVID-19 won't kill cities
  27. Yes, customers do like it when waiters and hairdressers wear a mask – especially if it's black
  28. Biden has pledged to advance environmental justice – here's how the EPA can start
  29. Rural health care is in crisis – here are 5 innovative ways Biden can help it transform
  30. Your corner pharmacy – joining the front lines of the COVID-19 fight
  31. How history textbooks will deal with the US Capitol attack
  32. Strange costumes of Capitol rioters echo the early days of the Ku Klux Klan - before the white sheets
  33. Why does it take longer to fly from east to west on an airplane?
  34. What does the economy need now? 4 suggestions for Biden's coronavirus relief bill
  35. Capitol mob wasn't just angry men – there were angry women as well
  36. Far-right groups move to messaging apps as tech companies crack down on extremist social media
  37. 'The US is falling apart': How Russian media is portraying the US Capitol siege
  38. A healthy microbiome builds a strong immune system that could help defeat COVID-19
  39. Why the US rejoining the Paris climate accord matters at home and abroad — 5 scholars explain
  40. Will Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's pick for attorney general, be independent in that role? History says it's unlikely
  41. Huge numbers of the formerly incarcerated are unemployed, but there are some promising solutions
  42. The NRA declares bankruptcy: 5 questions answered
  43. 'Early warning' systems in schools can be dangerous in the hands of law enforcement
  44. Kratom: What science is discovering about the risks and benefits of a controversial herb
  45. Sen. Ossoff was sworn in on pioneering Atlanta rabbi's Bible – a nod to historic role of American Jews in civil rights struggle
  46. US could face a simmering, chronic domestic terror problem, warn security experts
  47. 5 ways Biden can help rural America thrive and bridge the rural-urban divide
  48. Voters are starting to act like hard-core sports fans – with dangerous repercussions for democracy
  49. Trump revived Andrew Jackson's spoils system, which would undo America's 138-year-old professional civil service
  50. Invasive tawny crazy ants have an intense craving for calcium – with implications for their spread in the US