Page 44 - Covid Special Issue

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EFFORTS ON COVID-19 BY
COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH (CSIR)
CSIR reached out to its audience and stakeholders through a
number of means
COVID-19 not only set-off a pandemic but also triggered an infodemic all over the world. Mis-information and dis-information about the COVID-19 lead to several problems including instilling fear psychosis in the minds of people. Governments all over the world battled both the pandemic and the infodemic through suitable means. In India too, the Government played an important role in slowing the spread of the infodemic.
CSIR was at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 pandemic and it also put in place measures to counter the infodemic. The Science Communication and Dissemination Directorate closely coordinated with its many laboratories and other institutions to fight the infodemic. With the objective of taking the right information to the masses, CSIR embarked on a multipronged outreach strategy. Traditional and modern means were harnessed to reach out to the masses and also inform and educate them about COVID-19. The following have been some of the outreach measures:
Communication outreach
1. Compendium
2. Posters (including in vernacular languages)
3. Webinars (including in vernacular languages)
4. Blogs
5. COVID-19 Portal
6. Clinical Trials Portal
7. Videos
8. Social Media
9. COVID-19 Newsletter
10. COVID-19 Book
Multi-lingual Posters: One of the
earliest outreach initiatives taken by CSIR
as the pandemic hit the country was to
create awareness about the disease and the
dos and don’ts. This was done by creating
colourful posters and distributing them widely in both printed and digital forms.
Webinars: Several informative popular webinars on various aspects of COVID-19 including PPEs, drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and so on were held on a regular basis. The webinars in Kannada, Telugu, Bangla, Oriya, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, and so on were well attended.
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