PARIS — Success in reducing the toll of a flu pandemic requires increased levels of preparedness, and such readiness requires continued communications.
"This topic needs to become more popular," said Dr. Didier Houssin, co-chair of today’s discussion — the first of a two-day international exploration of the topic — held at the French Ministry of Health headquarters. Dr. Houssin, director general of health, co-chaired the forum with Len Pagano, president of The Safe America Foundation.
Communicatons, Communications, Communications
It seems that any approach to making headway mitigating or containing a major flu pandemic requires effective communications.
Participants at Monday’s gathering of government, business and non-government organizations presented communications as necessary to sustain awareness, to move preparations forward, and then to inspire changes in personal behaviors to reduce infections with the onset of a pandemic.
Whether the challenge is reducing the threat or lessening the impact, communications is necessary to connect across the sectors that comprise a society: national and state governments, business, church, and communities. In these segments, communications to and from a variety of professionals are needed: medical people, psychologists and social workers, as well as leaders and managers. Their interventions will be needed to assist individuals, families and social groups — especially once the pandemic begins taking a toll on the population. Most of all, preparedness leaders said they want to find a way to re-ignite the interest of the media. Indeed a general feeling is that the entertainment media — more than the news media — may be key.
"Hollywood, that’s so good at scaring us, is scared itself." Within the entertainment media, the motion picture theater operators face a huge risk, explains Len Pagano, president of The Safe America Foundation. Once a pandemic begins to spread, few, if any, will be permitted to operate.
Major studios will also face risks, because it will be difficult to bring production companies together to produce movies that will lose their in-theater exhibition debuts.
Two years ago the news media’s interest crested. We need entertainers to adopt preparedness and take the messaging on the road, helping to keep awareness alive.
More Questions than Answers
A number of other communications topics emerged — mostly in the form of questions, many of which will be addressed at Tuesday’s meeting. Here are some of them:
* Looking at all that’s needed, it is necessary to ask "how do we identify the targeted community to communicate with?" Though business is taking an active lead, the community (as I’ve remarked in another column) is a local one, comprising employees of several companies, schools, municipalities and other organizations.
* Once identified, how are these communities reached? How can the Internet help? How are people who are not connected to the Web reached?
* Continuity of messages is important, a topic being worked on today within the European Community and in need of focused attention in America.
* Established talk-show hosts could be considered a valuable resource.
What is remarkable is that there is no one best way. Vaccines and antiviral drugs are not necessarily fully understood by doctors. Face masks, which seem intuitively fitting, may not have a high degree of efficacy.
Yes, communications is critical but information and best practices will be needed to answer questions about what to do, how to motivate action, what organizations and individuals should do to prepare. At today’s meeting an attempt will be made to find answers.
