Communication

ECDC’s vision for its communication activities is to help target audiences make informed decisions about their health, and the health of others. It does this by actively engaging with them and providing relevant, easy-tounderstand content on infectious diseases epidemiology, prevention, and control, in collaboration with Member States, the European Commission and other partners across the EU and globally.

The year 2022 was the first year of implementation for the recently developed ECDC communication policy 2022−2027, targeting audiences such as health professionals, policymakers, the general public, the media and ECDC staff. Throughout 2022, ECDC tailored its communication outputs to reach target groups in different ways, focusing on their needs and levels of interaction (e.g. awareness, engagement, and cooperation.)

On the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, World Hepatitis Day, World Hand Hygiene Day, World Field Epidemiology Day, Flu Awareness Week, European Immunization Week and World AIDS Day, ECDC used the opportunity to inform interested public and technical experts of the Agency’s work and shape the respective risk communication messages.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) was marked on 18 November 2022 with a digital campaign12 and in partnership with the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. A digital event was held on 17 November with more than 300 participants, bringing together experts from the human and animal health sectors, as well as representatives from patient and professional organisations.

In 2022, ECDC continued to engage with journalists across the EU and internationally regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza, mpox, HIV/AIDS, vaccination issues and antimicrobial resistance and many other topics.

The press office received 471 media requests in 2022 from various media sources. These requests ranged from interviews with experts to written replies. During the course of the year, experts gave 50 media interviews, and the press office provided 365 written responses.

ECDC was continuously present in mainstream media during 2022, garnering a total of 24 460 references in highquality European and international media. Most of the coverage was neutral or positive and included content related to COVID-19, vaccination issues, mpox, hepatitis, influenza, and antimicrobial resistance.

In 2022, ECDC held four press conferences with journalists participating from most EU/EEA countries. These press conferences focussed on topics such as European Immunization Week, Salmonella , hepatitis, antimicrobial resistance, and HIV/AIDS. ECDC’s press and media team added a further 68 journalists to its journalist database during the year.

The number of followers on ECDC’s corporate Twitter account (@ECDC_EU) grew by 11 204, up from 94 560 followers in 2021, to 105 764. ECDC now has 163 897 followers across nine Twitter accounts, which represents an 11% increase on 2021.

The top performing tweets from @ECDC_EU in terms of impressions in 2022 included the maps in support of the Council Recommendation for a coordinated approach on travel measures (between 150 000 and 180 000 impressions each), the reclassification of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants to variants of concern (183 000), the second COVID-19 booster recommendations (345 000) and ECDC’s Rapid Risk Assessment on Omicron, published in January (67 000 impressions).

ECDC’s website continued to have high traffic in 2022 After the holidays in December and an increase in COVID-19 in parts of Europe, there was a peak in January, due to the high interest in the maps supporting the Council Recommendation on a coordinated approach to travel measures.

In 2022, ECDC published 66 infographics, posters and animations on its social media channels (11% decrease), mostly related to COVID-19 but also to antibiotic resistance, vaccination, and mpox. Some of these materials were translated and made available on ECDC’s website. Editable versions were also shared with partners and stakeholders across the EU.

ECDC produced 95 publicly available videos (38% increase on 2021) and published most of them on YouTube, where they received almost two million views. In total, 117 videos were developed, although some of them were intended for internal use or for events outside of ECDC.

In August 2021, ECDC began publishing a podcast ‘ECDC: On Air’. So far, 30 episodes have been aired, garnering 172 000 plays. The podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and others), as well as YouTube and SoundCloud. The most popular podcasts by the end of 2022 were about the start of the pandemic, the ECDC Fellowship Programme and field epidemiology, and mathematical modelling.