Category Archives: Communications

Two years later: Review and pivot

It’s been two years and three months since I started working to support people through the pandemic. Through this I helped to set up the pillars of the United against Covid-19 campaign, consulted to three Government Departments and many other public and private organisations, delivered so many webinar sessions I’ve lost count, written many Twitter […]

How to tell people you have tested positive for Covid-19

As we can see from case numbers today and most likely in days to come, this is going to become an increasingly more common experience.  Even though it’s a new thing to do, and it’s never easy to tell someone you may have an infectious disease and that you may have been a situation where […]

Navigating Omicron: Safe Uncertainty

Exiting the pandemic now is unrealistic Transitioning into what happens next is likely to be bumpy. What comes next – some people are talking about endemicity – is undefined. Whatever comes next will look very different in different places in the world, continuing to magnify and intensify inequities that pre-existed the pandemic. The strength of […]

Staying vigilant

As we watch and wait it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of safety in this new uncertainty.  The experts tell us that we will likely experience a lag before we detect cases and confirm that there are indeed more omicron cases in the community. So, we need to maintain our safe […]

Omicron community outbreak in New Zealand

We are moving from a place of what people can call a place of relative safe certainty to, hopefully, a place of safe ‘uncertainty’ again. We know what we can do to remain safer & slow down & reduce the clinical burden on people, the health system & containing outbreaks Understand that you have three […]

We need to talk about humiliation

The Government’s rhetoric about getting vaccinated has hardened. The conversation started with relying on intellectual arguments to convince people that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do through presenting data. It then moved to a persuasion stage, trying to understand the influence of emotions, and working through trusted connections to have conversations designed to […]

The New Covid Protection Framework: Initial Thoughts

The Prime Minister outlined the new Covid Protection Framework this morning. Here are some of the key points from a psychological point of view Outlining the new structure and how it will work will be helpful for most people. And it clear that the goal is to carry on vaccinating at speed and scale to […]

Messaging with some Bottle

Simple, clear messaging This is what has been what has been so successful in New Zealand’’s pandemic so far.  This is partly because the goal we were aiming for was clear – and that was elimination. And the Alert Level system was the process through which we got to that outcome. It was a complete […]

Vaxxathon: Renewing social license through collective action & social proof 

The upcoming vaxxathon is the tonic that New Zealanders didn’t know they needed. But let’s break down why it makes sense from the perspective of some important psychological and social concepts, too. Collective / Individual action Although the ‘Team of 5 Million’ is a well-worn and accepted phrase, it’s fallen into disrepair in recent months. […]