Three Years!
As we approach my three-year anniversary of blogging here, I'm encouraged to take a critical look at how things have been going.
First and foremost, I have to say that I love the community that's been developing around this blog. Each of you are an expert upon whom I depend greatly to ensure that my work is up to snuff. And I appreciate you for that.
I'm happy that the topics covered by this blog have expanded beyond the original intended focus of public health preparedness and now include the a sizable portion of the constellation of fields that support public health preparedness. Fields like emergency alerting, crisis communication, public information, homeland security and sometimes just regular public health all have a place here and sweeten the experience.
I'm unhappy that I'm still Jimmy Jazz. I wished that by this point I could retire that name and be me here. A couple of years ago, I started the conversation that might lead to my unmasking, but let it falter. I think that I'll try again this year.
As always, if you've got a question, concern or idea for a post, please feel free to leave me a comment, drop me an email or follow me on Twitter.
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My good friends at NPHIC are helping to sponsor the third annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media. From what I've heard from friends about previous years' conferences, it's a real humdinger.
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FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate does a quick little video about the importance of having regular citizens get ready. This is something my old friend John Solomonn at incaseofemergencyblog.com would appreciate.
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Interesting post for my crisis comms folks about the give and take that's required to foster a good relationship between PIOs and the media. Give a little, get a little.
And don't forget that they'd sell their grandmothers for a story. =P
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Using Twitter's Advanced Search function for intelligence gathering in the Middleton, CT explosion.
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A rather lengthy article that considers both sides of the H1N1 vaccine debate. The author's main contention is that the public at-large simply does not trust government and non-governmental health authorities. The author buttresses this line of thinking by demonstrating that hundreds of carcinogenic and dangerous chemicals are, while not specifically ok'ed by the health establishment, they're not outright banned. This supports the theory that public health is "in bed with" industry. The author's solution is to hold up the public health field to examination. Shine a flashlight in all of those dark places. If you've nothing to hide, you might just restore the public's trust.
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So, maybe our messaging /wasn't/ that effective after all.
Whilst Philadelphia was being squashed by the sno-pocalypse, the NY Times published an amazing article based on a survey out of the Harvard School of Public Health. They’ve been publishing survey results pretty regularly throughout the pandemic, though this one seems more damning than most.
They found that only about 20% of Americans received their H1N1 vaccine. Many Americans (44%) believe the pandemic to be over. And most think that the flu threat was overblown.
One key quote from the survey:
Our results show there was broad awareness of the public health messages on H1N1; approximately 3/4 of the public reported seeing ads regarding the importance of getting the H1N1 vaccine since December, but many people did not respond to the message.
This echoes a warning I made way back in October, when I said:
The author [of a post on the Walking the Path blog] thinks the CDC did a good job on educating people about H1N1 by utilizing social media, but is dropping the ball on spurring people to action. Specifically, lots of people aren’t planning on getting the vaccine, which anecdotally seems like the case to me, too.
Is that what failure looks like?
Is it possible that H1N1 public information campaigns are more than just education campaigns? Is there a second component to H1N1 communications, one of convincing people to act?
Prescient, right? Here was my proposed solution:
I think that’s the next phase in H1N1 influenza communications (or at least it should be). Move away from bullhorn risk communications. Begin engaging with your community. Right now, the best way I can think of to do that is to use social media tools — at the local level.
CDC should be offering webinars on how LHDs can set up Twitter accounts and how to record YouTube videos. The CERC folks should be developing curriculums to teach PIOs how to write using a social media voice. Health Commissioners should be scheduling live chatroom “office hours” where citizens and residents can ask them to address specific worries from the public.
I guess, then, I’m not saying CDC has failed in their H1N1 communication efforts. They’ve handled the first phase extremely well. Kudos, really. I think that believing they can continue to communicate the same way going forward, in this second phase, is their failure. And there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it. The fact is, the CDC is just not equipped to act as a local presence everywhere, nor should they be. Pandemic influenza is, and has always been, a local emergency that just happens to occur everywhere. The response, by definition, should be locally coordinated.
People heard the message – flu abounds! CDC gets lots of great things written about their outreach efforts; and deservedly so. Flu vaccine is available – crickets abound! CDC gets dragged through the coals; and I would argue undeservedly so.
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Something came up at work today about Project Public Health Ready (which I need to learn more about) and the competencies required for certification. While looking for them, I found this page with some need docs for our public health preparedness folks.
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Alright, now not only is Gerald Baron one of my favorite writers on crisis communication topics, but in today's post he absolutely knocks the ball out of the park. I'm a big believer in the need for aggressive media monitoring and rumor control, and Gerald passes along a great story about how American Airlines identified, and subsequently squashed, an unfounded rumor about them and free flights to Haiti. This is a definite read for my crisiscomms folks.
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Disaster sociologist Kathleen Tierney reminds us that few disasters are "natural." Too often short human foresight and lack of planning leads to an exacerbation of the problem — which is where all of the death and destruction comes in.
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Since earthquakes are on everyone's minds these days, I thought I'd pass this article along on Portland's designated Cassandra. My good friend @caroldn probably knows all about this guy.
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Very cool video interview of one of my favorite EM thinkers, current FEMA Administrato, Craig Fugate. Now, I know you're going to be disappointed that it is only five minutes long, and I'm sorry, but I was disappointed, too.
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Neat article on how DoD (the Department of Defense) is approaching public health emergency response.
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Innovative use of SMS messaging to gather help in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. The stuff they can do nowadays…
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NACCHOs blog has a quick post on states and local communities looking back at their response to H1N1. I really dig the outreach that both Kane County, IL and Hawaii HD are doing to get the public's view of their response.
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Intriguing article about the nature of resilience. Could this be the reason why I have such a difficult time expressing what resilience is? Because it happens. The question isn't fostering resiliency, but making the most of when it happens.
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The real McCoy. Be warned, this thing is 108 pages of dense EMA -talk (does that make the PDF bigger, do you think?).
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Interesting article from Newsweek that notes the parallels and differences between the two disasters. I was impressed by the repetition of the key lesson learned. Effective recovery is Local, Local, Local. There's a lesson to be learned there, for all of our recovery efforts.
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The National Disaster Medical System, or NDMS, has been activated to assist with evacuating critically injured patients from Haiti. I find this really interesting and would love to read the AAR from this action. I've already seen complaints online that this effort will cancel elective surgeries for US patients, though I find it hard to balance the two and put elective surgeries as more important.
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from NACCHO.
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Late last night the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review document was delivered to Congress. Downloading it now. Enjoy the overview!
