Perhaps justifiably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took much of the heat for federal health messaging blunders during the pandemic. Conservatives and public health advocates alike singled out the agency for flip-flopping on COVID-19 guidance and losing public trust. But leaders at the CDC, including influenza division associate director for communications Erin Burns, have started to reverse the reputational trend. Burns heads the agency’s communications strategy — which includes online, print and social media — for its flu campaigns. Most recently, she helped launch the CDC’s Wild to Mild flu vaccination campaign, which aimed to dispel vaccine hesitancy with a new, more common-sensical approach. How do you know Burns gets it, so to speak? She’s playing up the role of transparency in the agency’s health messaging, a change that has been long in coming.
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