Tuesday, April 11, 2023
From Paper to Press Conference in 40 Hours
In early April, the communications department at the University of Miami Health System (and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine) knew they had an important study by their scientists that would be of interest to the media and public. The study was accepted by the journal Pediatrics and was slated to be published on April 6th. The study showed that COVID-19 could cross into the placenta of pregnant women and cause brain injury in newborns, as evidenced by 2 cases they treated in Miami. With just a few days to get this information out to the world, UHealth (University of Miami Health System/Miller School of Medicine) contacted Newswise to connect with reporters.
With just a few days to plan, Newswise and UHealth set a plan of action. Newswise would host a live event on the day of the study’s publication on April 6th with the researchers involved in the study. By April 5th, the journal Pediatrics gave the green light to move forward with promoting the embargoed material to trusted journalists. An embargoed news release concerning the study was posted on Newswise and distributed to the thousands of vetted journalists who subscribe. An alert was also included in the wires with a brief description of the study, and a link for registration to attend the live event featuring a Q&A session with the researchers from Miami. Through Newswise’s Select service, invites were sent to relevant media members about the event. Invitations, in the form of a Media Alert, with the “who, what when, and where,” were sent to media members known to cover public health, women’s health, COVID-19, children’s health, and infectious diseases. Through the email invites and the messages in the Newswise wires, media immediately registered to attend the event and to receive a video/transcript of the event once it concluded.
The virtual event, hosted by Newswise and involving a panel of five researchers, including the lead author of the study, occurred at 10 AM on April 6th. It lasted less than one hour. In attendance were 28 reporters, some of whom were journalists, editors, and producers at major media outlets such as The New York Times, Reuters, AP, ABC, CBS, USA Today, and NBC News. After a summary of the study presented by the lead author of the paper, questions were fielded from reporters. A transcript and video of the event can be found here.
Upon conclusion of the event, Newswise tracked coverage of the study as it was disclosed in the news release and the live event. We saw coverage published that very same day by Reuters, CTV News, and The Scranton Times-Tribune. By April 7th, several clips were collected by such outlets as the Miami Herald, NBC News, WUSF in Tampa, and Contemporary OB/GYN.
The news was out. Most women who contract COVID go on to have healthy babies, however, there is a subset of the population whose babies get sick from the infection. Thanks to UHealth in Miami, the public has been notified of the possible potential dangers of COVID on expecting mothers and the importance of vaccinations.
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