Greetings readers. I’m Nicole Schuman, Managing Editor of PRNEWS. Welcome to another edition of Single Shot.

Public health crises are off to a roaring start in 2025. Bird flu has upended the egg economy and is being closely watched for spread to other species. Measles cases are on the rise in Texas, and for the first time in 10 years, a U.S. citizen (a child) died of the disease. And flu cases have broke records this year as vaccination rates have dropped, with hospitalizations at their highest since 2009.

So yes, you could say health communicators are quite busy.

No one likes to be told to do something. Most people like to come to their own conclusions and decide on their own. However, our author notes the importance of getting important information to the public and battling misinformation during this shaky time in public health. And our article provides some new ways to approach messaging and communications that can help.

Check out our article on The Communciator's Role in an Anti-Expert Era here, full of tips on how to approach important topics with a stubborn public. We tease a few of these below.

The PRNEWS team wishes you a great start to your week. As always, we welcome feedback on our newsletters. Feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Stay well.

• Find New Messengers: The task is to identify and elevate voices that resonate with skeptical audiences. These should be trusted figures within communities—faith leaders, local influencers—folks who can connect on a human level. 
• Reframing Public Health Messages: People don’t want to be told what to do, even if it’s for their own good. Research shows that vaccine messaging focused on avoiding negative outcomes, such as missing school or work due to illness, resonates more with people than creating positive outcomes, such as a healthier community. 
• Reframing the Value of Expertise: Organizations need to shift the narrative from “experts telling us what to do” to “these folks from our community can help us solve our problems.”