During a Comic-Con @ Home panel with the somewhat whimsical title “Zombies and Coronavirus: Planning for the Next Big Outbreak,” Brooks, along with a group of scientists, recalled World War II, when the entertainment industry enlisted. to help Support the war effort. He specifically cited “Why We Fight,” a series of documentary films commissioned by the United States government during the war.
“Everything is practical in the mass communications department,” Brooks said, speaking of the deficiency in terms of clear information reaching the public before adding, “If we don’t close the gap, nothing we do will save us.”
The other panel members largely agreed, noting that the scientific community has to overcome mistrust of science, as well as ignorance about the way science works, especially when it comes to providing answers to a crisis in fast movement like the current one. .
“There will be many unknowns. There always are,” said Jarod Hanson, a public health consultant at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who has called the United States’ response so far “a total failure.”
Shanna Ratnesar-Shumate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center echoed Brooks’ point about the need to better communicate what is known and to improve understanding of how science works. “There are a lot of really brilliant scientists who are really terrible at talking about science to the general public,” she said.
Brooks, who in addition to “World War Z”, which was made into a film, wrote “The Zombie Survival Guide,” also cited the importance of journalism in this process, which is not favored by political efforts to discredit the media. conventional. “We are dying because we do not know what the truth is,” he said, adding that the free press is “what validates our systems of government.”
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