The article talked about the plans for a project to improve “communications”
. The communication refers to communication with
average civilians, in other words, keeping civilians informed. They want
to do this to keep the spread of disease and panic to a minimum. The project, called the Transparent
Communication in Epidemics (TELL ME) started back in November.
The project believes that one of the major problems in past
epidemics was the lack of communicating with the public and aims to fix this
problem. It wants to change how authorities deal with
outbreaks; it wants to use communication to get information out about the
disease instead of strategies based on denial and verbal reassurances” , and “restrictive
methods”. Efforts have been put on keeping the public
informed based on research saying human behavior heavily influences disease
transmission.
They focused on civilian reaction and make plans based on
what would be best. They take aspects from public health, social sciences,
behavioral sciences, political sciences, law, ethics, communication and media. So that in case of an epidemic people will be
more likely to listen. It plans on letting civilians and health professionals
contribute to making decisions. It also plans on looking at past epidemics to
look at people’s behavior.
We already know that there are cases where people do not
help workers in public health. Mary
Mallon (Typhoid Mary)ran away and went to work as a cook once again. Maybe if she were told of the dangers and
explained the reasons she would have not acted that way. Even in 1918 people with influenza would not
answer the door for a doctor because they thought they would be taken away
until they got better or were cured, police had to get involved in some cases. It seems
that the refusal to cooperate in months due to fear caused by lack of
information.
I think this project is a good idea. They insist on transparency meaning that the public
will be told everything in an easy to understand way. It is
important because the more information told the more the public will trust it. If the public trusts it, they will resist
less making it easier to prevent the spread of the disease.
I think this article really hit the nail on the head. Communications is such an important part of any society, especially when disease control is involved. Looking back at any epidemic or pandemic, there could have been much less damage if the proper information could have been shared with the mass population. This article reminds me of the article about twitter. There seems to be a trend and a focus on communicating the risks, precautions and information about current diseases; and I think that is very important.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the project Transparent Communication in Epidemics (TELL ME)because I think it is extremly important to keep the public informed on diseases that could possibly cause a national crisis. If the public recieves more information that explains what the disease is, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent and treat it, then the public will be more prepared to face an outbreak and less likely to go into a chaotic state. Educating the people and communicating with the public seems to be a brilliant and effective way in preventing the spread of a disease.
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