How Medical Jargon Can Make COVID Health Disparities Even Worse

May 31, 2021

(NPR) – The sudden global appearance in 2020 of COVID-19, a new and often lethal viral illness, has meant the scientific evidence on what to do to prevent and treat the virus has been changing rapidly. Simply keeping up with the latest understanding and guidance has been especially challenging for a number of groups in the U.S. — people who speak little or no English, many older adults, people with limited education or cognitive skills and really anyone who finds the often-opaque language of health care too difficult to understand, says Michael Wolf. He’s a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who studies the ways health communication can go wrong. (Read Full Article)