The COVID-19 pandemic may have turned day-to-day life upside down, but it hasn’t brought the world to a standstill. As first responders, medical researchers and international governments seek out crisis management strategies to treat the virus and slow its spread, lines of communication across foreign borders and languages have never been more crucial.
To coordinate this communication, translation experts and linguistic experts are in high demand. Addressing and mitigating these public health risks requires a collective effort from citizens and governments around the globe. Meanwhile, the pursuit of more effective treatments, as well as the long-term goal of developing a vaccine, requires the ability to quickly and accurately communicate across these language barriers.
As the world faces this pandemic head-on, here are the situations where translation and interpretation services are playing an essential role.
Press Conferences and Official Press Releases
Many governments are now conducting regular, if not daily, press conferences and briefings for the public. In some countries, there is an ongoing need for translation and interpretation to deliver these messages to a population of citizens that may speak different languages.
Interpretation services are needed to deliver these messages around the world, and quickly. At the same time, translation services are being called upon to share press releases and other official messaging to global citizens who aren’t native speakers in that language.
But language services also play an important role locally as well. State governors and mayors are now speaking regularly about their crisis management plan regarding COVID-19. Their offices need interpreters and translators to share their message with local populations whose first language may be Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, or another language regularly spoken within their communities.
Specialized Medical and Science-Related Communications
Researchers, medical doctors, and infectious disease experts are just some of the medical professionals and scientists collaborating on treatment interventions and research around the world. These professionals need their research reports, statements, and interviews translated and interpreted for an international audience that often includes peers working to solve the same problems.
To provide accurate translations of these speeches and written reports, linguistic experts need to be specialized in legal and medical translation. The language of these communications can be highly technical and involve many irregular terms that aren’t common outside of these fields. Translating this information accurately is critical to ensuring that the global medical and scientific communities are on the same page as they develop safe, effective crisis management strategies.
Communication With Foreign Doctors Working Across Borders
As doctors and other healthcare workers make contributions at the frontlines of coronavirus hotspots, translators play a crucial role in providing care to patients. While this work may not be visible to the average person, translators and interpreters may be called upon to translate a patient’s medical documents for a healthcare organization.
They may also facilitate communication between teams or healthcare professionals who may not all speak the same language, and even provide interpreting services to hospitalized patients who don’t speak the same language as their doctor.
Even with digital tools available to provide remote translation services around the globe, medical translation remains in high demand during the pandemic—and the ability to facilitate translation and interpretation can have a direct impact on crisis management success. If your organization is in need of translators to aid in this pandemic fight, contact Protranslating today.
