UO professor tweets to spread awareness

UO professor tweets to spread awareness

Public spaces..

Six feet apart or not.

And, that's not all.

We begin our team coverage with kezi nine news reporter jillian smukler... to show us what one professor is doing to get the message across to students -- about how they can help reduce the risk..

Renee -- convincing college students to avoid going to parties -- keep their distance -- and wear a mask -- seems like an impossible task.

We've been cooped up for seven months -- and many people are itching to get back to normal.

But --*obviously that can't happen -- especially with the surge we're seeing here in lane county.

So how do you reach students -- and really show them the risk?

Well -- through social media of course.

Ellen peters -- is the director of the center for science communication research at the university of oregon.

She's been using*twitter and statistics to show students the risk their behaviors have for themselves and others -- and to motivate them to practice good behavior.

She says students have been extremely receptive and actually*surprised to hear how likely it is that they'll run into someone who is covid positive.

"based on current infections in lane county if you go to a party with ten people theres about a 4 percent chance that you're going to run into at least 1 covid positive person at that party.

But if you go to a party with 100 people though, that goes up to 37 percent and that means you have nine times the risk if you go to that larger event compared to the smaller event.

If you go to an event with just two people theres only a one percent chance its actually pretty small she says students have been retweeting her -- and spreading the information for*others to see -- which is the goal.

She says she would never tell anyone to not socialize -- but if you can do so*safely it will drastically improve the numbers in lane county.

Coming up at six -- why she says shaming people for their choices -- ends up backfiring.

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