How should newsrooms cover the COVID-19 vaccine?
Above all, with context. Whether reporting on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines or their impact, it’s vital that news organizations give their readers a full picture of the complexity of the story. Vaccines are not cure-alls, but they are incredibly useful tools—and readers should understand what we know about the vaccines (i.e. they have proven remarkably effective) and what we don’t (i.e., they haven’t been tested in certain populations). Similarly, the rollout is an enormously complicated undertaking. News organizations should explain why that’s the case—and report vigorously on breakdowns in the process.