Spread of coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) all over the world has led to many kinds of misinformation, which may lead to even more serious damage.
Besides fighting the virus itself, the world is also fighting against inaccurate information that is spreading massively across social media. Misinformation, which leads to panic, spreads even faster than the virus itself.
Here is where the linguists can take part. Medical document translation is even more important as the virus, which first appeared in China, has spread to hundreds of nations that certainly have different languages.
Why Medical Document Translation is More Important Than Ever?
Professional translators rarely leave their homes even under normal situations. So, why are they affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? The answer lies in the crucial role of accurate information in fighting against the virus.
Now, talented and experienced translators and interpreters are working hard to make sure a consistent flow of accurate information and data across health organizations, government organizations, and the communities.
Medical document translation services may play a greater role when fighting against the virus. As mentioned above, the corona virus has spread to hundreds of nations, which have different languages. Therefore, the protocols, the manual book, the promotional contents related to COVID-19 prevention and management must also be available in many language versions.
In this critical situation, machine translation or software does not help much. People need accurate information. Even seemingly trivial mistakes may lead to fatal effects.
Therefore, the guidelines and protocols must be presented in an easy-to-understand language tone – there is no room for ambiguity or double meanings. The case applies not only to written books or guidelines, but also to audio-video contents, audio contents, and many more.
How Medical Document Translation Can Help?
Under this situation, official channels are the first place to visit if the public needs to get accurate information and limit panic. Of course, this is not an easy talk.
All relevant stakeholders are expected to participate based on their background. Technical documentation translation companies help by offering translation services for medical documents.
This way, language barriers among health professionals, community-based organizations, and government organizations, can be significantly minimized.
In addition, the following are some ways, in which the linguists can help in the fight against COVID-19:
Translating Medical Books and Manuals on COVID-19
Interpreting and translators are doing their job to provide vital information exchange among related stakeholders.
The health care providers need accurate documents as references in preventing and managing COVID-positive cases.
The government agencies, for instance, need to make sure that all the citizens receive accurate information on social distancing, physical distancing, and hygiene.
For instance, the U.S government recently provided medical document translation on COVID-19 to the Spanish community in the U.S.
With the right information at hand, the community can help protect themselves from the virus attack by taking the right prevention steps.
The recent focus is not to increase awareness about hygiene anymore, but to prevent the virus transmission, solve global public health issues, and prevent a global financial recession.
Translating Medical Research
In this area, the linguists can take part in the academic field. They can collaborate with laboratories and research institutes around the world.
Information on the latest research on COVID-19, particularly in the area of treatment, in their native language, will be valuable for the research community.
Those who are working on projects to develop COVID-19 treatment can use the research results as reference.
As they have been working under pressure for the last few months, researchers and laboratories can work with linguists to streamline communications and to address language barriers.
With the help of technical documentation translation companies, research communities and laboratories in the world can communicate effectively.
Accurate translation minimizes confusion and ambiguity. This way, the scientists can focus on doing the jobs instead of wasting time learning terms in reports, which are written in foreign language.
Translating Behavioral Communication Contents
Another important aspect of the fight against coronavirus disease is behavioral communication.
The government agencies, businesses, and non-governmental organizations are aggressively providing the community with promotion contents, like videos, infographics, tips, and tricks on how to avoid COVID attack and how to stop the virus transmission.
The efforts will be more effective if the promotion contents reach all segments of the community.
Organizations that cannot create their own contents may translate the existing videos from trustworthy sources like the World Health Organization.
In this way, they only need to provide the translation of the audio contents into the target language.
Besides translating medical document translation, the linguists can play a part in translating promotion contents into various languages.
In conclusion, language service and the linguists play important roles in the fight against COVID-19. Besides offering medical document translation services, they can take part in other aspects. The good news is that translators have been accustomed to working from home. They can maintain consistent information workflow by doing their jobs from home.