A Step in the Right Direction

The updated quarantine & isolation guidelines published on January 9th by the CDC

In my initial post, I wrote the following:

…I’ve grown increasingly frustrated - mostly during the pandemic - with people and entities that should be able to communicate more clearly but cannot get there. So much of what I read, watch, and listen to suffers from fatal errors that leave me with a feeling of “OMG, why is this so hard for them to explain???”

On January 9th, the CDC released their new quarantine & isolation guidelines, which were badly needed to make some sort of sense out of the otherwise chaotic web of policies out there right now. They’re definitely a step in the right direction.

Make Sure the Reader Understands the Primary Message!

In the realm of “strategic communications”, the CDC fails a bit here. If you want to catch a busy or distracted reader’s attention - and everyone is both of these during this pandemic - you need to put the key information at the top of the message so that you don’t have to read far to “pick up what you’re putting down”, so to speak. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

First, at the top of the page, they lay out the definitions of quarantine and isolate, which could throw someone off if this is all they were to see:

Putting this at the top - with the guidance under each word - simply tells people to stay away from others if exposed or sick. No nuance for personal immunity/vaccination status. That’s not a great start. As a key driver of vaccination campaigns, you want to encourage people to get their shots. The benefits of those shots should be obvious on this page, but the initial message doesn’t point the reader in that direction.

Heading down the page, you then see this:

If I’m a busy person, I see the definitions for quarantine & isolation, followed by a calculation box for how long I need to avoid people. No mention of immunity status so far. So, that’s sort of 0-for-2.

It does improve as you go down the page, as it provides recommendations based on your immunization status (and there’s a lot of nuance and detail). But…you have to actually read that far first and then pick up the details. I’m a pretty detail-oriented, high-information guy and I had to read it 2-3 times to really get the point.

A Better Way

Once the reader gets onto the page, s/he should know that the content they came to read is categorized by vaccination status. So, make that obvious! Maybe you do something like this:

If you put it in red text or in a red box - or something to that effect - people will see it and pay attention. If you don’t, you risk missing the mark and having people misconstrue your message.

Short version: Make your intended message obvious

My guess is that the CDC was looking to give everyone - of any vaccination status - guidance for how to proceed after exposure and symptom onset. However, by not giving people the best chance to receive your intended message by making it obvious, your impact is going to be muted.

But it’s a step in the right direction.