Two infectious disease specialists describe and discuss what the scientific community knows about the avian flu virus H5N1 and how pandemic influenza might emerge. Read more
To communicate with people about risk, journalists need to better understand how and why people respond in the ways they do to messages they receive about danger. An expert in risk communication explains the connection between risks that kill people and those that upset them, and he describes how best to approach audiences based on their beliefs about the risks they face. Read more
Reporters from the United States, China and Germany discuss how a story about a health issue such as avian flu can be covered competitively, with its web of connections that make it an economic, political, scientific and global news story. Read more
Reporters and editors discuss how they've covered disaster situations, including those in which people were infected by the H5N1 virus. And they talk about preparations they are making at their news organizations for coverage of pandemic flu. Read more
A man wears a rooster head to publicize bird flu prevention on the streets of Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi Province. March 2006. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press/EyePress. Stephen Prior, … Read more
Whether it involves education, law enforcement or public health, preparation for pandemic flu should be underway in every community. Speakers addressed tasks and topics that should be examined by reporters, who could use them to investigate how well their region's planning is proceeding. Read more
Much has been learned about how people react and respond to disasters. From these experiences emerge lessons that can guide journalists in understanding better what they can expect to happen if pandemic flu occurs. Read more
What transpired between journalists and sources during past disasters and crises—such as the 2001 anthrax attacks—can illuminate challenges confronting the press as it seeks reliable information from experts. Some lessons are shared by a journalist who retraced what happened and points to what can be learned from what didn't work well before. Read more
As a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Maryn McKenna, author of “Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service” (Free Press, 2004), participated in the conference, “The … Read more
For those who will bear the responsibility of communicating to journalists during an outbreak of pandemic flu, the preparation comes in the daily exchanges they are having already with reporters and in working internally to establish guidelines for how best to get information out to the public in ways that are trustworthy and timely. Read more
