Hantavirus Horrors & Hubris
BONUS
What happens when public health leaders are more concerned with avoiding panic than avoiding pandemics?
Public Health Media Club is a spinoff collaboration between the hosts of Everything is Public Health (MJ) and Public Health is Dead (Daniella).
"Should you be worried?" is the wrong question for the media to be asking about public health issues.
We need good information to make good decisions. But global public health leaders seem more concerned about avoiding panic than avoiding pandemics. When a virus started spreading human-to-human on a cruise ship in May, public health communication faltered as panic-management took the helm.
All aboard, friends! We're dissecting a New York Times piece on hantavirus transmission.
Hear what MJ and Daniella have to say about hantavirus coverage, public health misinformation, and how reporting on science desperately needs improvement. "Better safe than sorry" seems like common sense but public health leaders and the media still haven't learned from COVID pandemic comms mistakes (or the others before that).
We also size up the term “close contact”. It’s standard fare in public health comms except it’s ambiguous and doesn’t really tell you much, which is the opposite of clear communication. Public health can do better than tell us not to panic. There are a lot of lessons in the past. What will it take?
PHMC is edited by MJ.
Transcript here
RESOURCES:
NYT Hantavirus article - Hantavirus Doesn't Spread Easily, but Officials May Be Downplaying Risks
VOX Today Explained ft. Lawrence Gostin
BMJ article - Hantavirus outbreak should reset WHO’s default approach to airborne risk
RELATED EPISODES:
The Airborne Transmission Error - Something's in the Air - Public Health is Dead
Meet the New Pandemic, Same as the Old Pandemic ft. Daniella Barreto - The North State
Public Health Media Club
A conversational critique of the good, the bad, and the ugly when public health pops up in the media. Find PHMC episodes in the regular PHiD feed!
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Note: Cleaning indoor air with air purifiers powerful enough for the size of the room is an effective way to filter out airborne pathogens as well as smoke and allergens. Air filters are a tool that can help significantly lower infection risk from COVID, influenza, and other airborne diseases. Additional layers of infection mitigation to lower transmission risk at closer distances, like well-fitting respirators, are also recommended!
Air filters are often available to borrow from local clean air groups (e.g. in Vancouver, Clean Air 604) and respirators from local maskblocs (e.g. Masks4EastVan; others listed here).