A comprehensive Cochrane review analyses global public health communication strategies during COVID-19, providing five evidence-based recommendations for future crisis messaging. The study emphasises that clear communication is not just desirable but essential for saving lives, highlighting the need for timely, actionable information and sustained public trust in authorities. Key findings show the critical importance of countering misinformation and maintaining two-way communication with diverse populations.

In the latest edition of Nature, Cochrane Australia’s Julian Elliott and Tari Turner join colleagues from around the globe in calling for a greater focus on living evidence to inform research policy and practice.

Cochrane contributors around the world continue to focus on understanding, treating and preventing COVID-19. Cochrane Australia is playing an active role in the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce and continues to collaborate in international efforts to understand, contain and stop the spread of coronavirus.

It’s hard to believe that just over a year ago, lockdowns, quarantining and strict social distancing were completely unfamiliar to us. Yet in a matter of months, these measures came to define the daily life of people all over the world. For Coordinating Editor of Cochrane Consumers and Communication Dr Rebecca Ryan, this was a time when the professional and the personal began to intersect.

Cochrane Australia and the Australian Living Evidence Consortium have welcomed the announcement that the Victorian Government will invest in the ‘Living Evidence’ model to transform the way new research is used to improve outcomes for patients in Victoria and around Australia.