Dr. Peter Sandman
Pandemic Flu and
Other Infectious Diseases Index

Until a few years ago my risk communication work only rarely dealt with infectious disease outbreaks. Even when I got involved in the U.S. government’s response to the anthrax attacks and the possible threat of a smallpox attack, I saw myself as working on terrorism communication, not infectious disease communication.

Then came SARS. Working jointly with my wife, physician Jody Lanard, I started helping the World Health Organization think through its communication efforts on SARS. Pretty soon Jody and I were writing about how various countries, especially Singapore and Canada, had handled their SARS outbreaks. By the time avian influenza caught my attention in January 2004, infectious disease outbreaks were one of my things. Since then I’ve had a chance to advise clients or write columns on a polio inoculation program, a hemorrhagic fever outbreak, a flu vaccine shortage, and the effort to “recall” a laboratory test kit that contained a potentially pandemic strain of influenza.

The compelling worldwide interest in bird flu and the prospect of a flu pandemic prompts me to add an index of content on this website relevant to bird flu and other infectious diseases. There’s another reason for a separate index. Pandemic flu risk communication doesn’t fit well in my categories of crisis communication, precaution advocacy, and outrage management — for now, at least, it is pre-crisis risk communication, hovering somewhere between crisis communication and precaution advocacy.

I haven’t included the anthrax and smallpox materials in this new index, just the articles addressing natural outbreaks. (I made an exception for “A Blind Spot for Bad Guys,” which deals with the risk of H2N2 terrorism, because it’s flu.)

Topical Sections

Pandemic Flu: Essential Reading
Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns from CIDRAP Business Source Weekly Briefing
Pandemic Flu: Other Important Articles and Guestbook Entries
Pandemic Flu: Additional Reading
SARS, “Ordinary” Flu, and Other Infectious Diseases

Pandemic Flu: Essential Reading

• What to Say When a Pandemic Looks Imminent: Messaging for WHO Phases Four and Five (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (March 2007)
• Bird Flu, Pandemic Flu, and Poultry Markets: Playing Ostrich or Talking Turkey? (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (May 2006)
• The Flu Pandemic Preparedness Snowball (October 2005)
• Bird Flu: Communicating the Risk (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (July 2005)
• Superb Flu Pandemic Risk Communication: A Role Model from Australia (by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman) (July 2005)
• Pandemic Influenza Risk Communication: The Teachable Moment (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (December 2004)
• Worst Case Scenarios (August 2004)

Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns from CIDRAP
Business Source Weekly Briefing

• Read “FAFfing About” if you need some motivation (July 2007)
• The bird flu / pandemic flu confusion (not yet published by CIDRAP)
• Whose pandemic fatigue? (June 2007)
• Why talk now: The case for communicating with employees before the pandemic arrives (June 2007)
• Corporate pandemic precaution advocacy: The time is now (May 2007)
• What kind of risk communication does pandemic preparedness require? (May 2007)
• Start thinking in phases – risk communication phases (April 2007)
• Riding the many pandemic seesaws (April 2007)
• Seesaw your way through ambivalence (March 2007)
• Talking about a flu pandemic worst case scenario (March 2007)
• A severe pandemic is not overdue – it’s not when but if (February 2007)
• “Might help a lot, might help a little, might not help at all – and worth trying!” (February 2007)
• The four faces of bird flu (January 2007)
• Get your slice of the ‘fearfulness’ pie (January 2007)
• Scaring people is scary (December 2006)
• How’s Your Business Discontinuity Program? (November 2006)

Pandemic Flu: Other Important Articles and Guestbook Entries

• The dangers of excessive warnings … and of over-reassurance (July 2008)
• Risk communication is a type; outbreak communication is a subtype (July 2008)
• Video and Audiotapes on Pandemic Precaution Advocacy (August 2007)
• What do I think about the controversy in the pandemic prep community about my role and my integrity? (February 2007)
• Pandemic preparedness and the poor: Are we urging people to do more than they can? (January 2007)
• Is a flu pandemic likely to raise issues of social stigma? How can risk communication help with stigma? (January 2007)
• Why it’s hard to persuade people to add pandemics to the long list of things they’re worried about (November 2006)
• Pandemic flu good communication example file (October 2006)
• Pandemic flu misinformation “Hall of Shame” (October 2006)
• Talking about “high-path” and “low-path” avian flu (September 2006)
• How much should we trust what WHO says about pandemic phase? (September 2006)
• Measuring pandemic fear, panic, denial, and apathy (April 2006)
• Surgical masks: Another pandemic risk communication controversy (February 2006)
• The Dilemma of Personal Tamiflu Stockpiling (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (January 2006)
• Likelihood of a severe pandemic — the hunger for a number (December 2005)
• The flu pandemic issue-attention cycle — where does skepticism fit? (December 2005)
• Talking to a local government official about pandemic flu (November 2005)
• Talking to healthcare workers about pandemic risks (November 2005)
• Trusting in your government’s pandemic planning (November 2005)
• Stressing non-medical pandemic preparedness (while the feds stress medical preparedness) (November 2005)
• Some flu pandemic adjustment reactions (October 2005)
• Pandemic preparedness — what’s a doctor to do? (October 2005)
• The ethics of Tamiflu (October 2005)
• Giving children frightening bird flu information (August 2005)
• Homeland Security's color coding as an excuse not to warn people about bird flu (July 2005)
• People getting themselves ready for a flu pandemic (July 2005)
• When warnings become a scare (by Gregory M. Lamb) (July 2005)
• What can individuals do to prepare for a bird flu pandemic? (May 2005)
• People’s need for health emergency information (February 2005)
• Psychological Barriers Getting in the Way of Pandemic Preparations: Experts (by Helen Branswell) (November 2004)
• Avian Flu Exercise: What Are They Doing? (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (May 2004)

Pandemic Flu: Additional Reading

• You can’t hector people into pandemic preparedness (February 2008)
• (1) What’s unique about pandemic communication? (2) What’s new in risk communication? (September 2007)
• Panflu risk communication to foreign-born populations (August 2007)
• Tamiflu redux (August 2007)
• Physician survey shows mixed views on pandemic risk (by Lisa Schnirring) (June 2007)
• Understanding the Risk: What Frightens Rarely Kills (Spring 2007)
• Corporate Tamiflu stockpiling (April 2007)
• Is it good or bad risk communication to warn Asian students that they are at “high risk” of contracting bird flu from food? (January 2007)
• Talking about animal culls (December 2006)
• Understanding Human Responses [to pandemic risk]: Communication Focus (Spring 2007)
• Risk Perception, Risk Communication, and Risk Reporting: The Role of Each in Pandemic Preparedness (Spring 2007)
• Internet rumours of bird flu case in Rimouski, Que., are ‘totally untrue’ (by Helen Branswell) (November 2006)
• Recent H5N1 Outbreaks: The Evolving Challenge of Defining and Communicating Pandemic Risk (July 2006)
• “Mild” versus severe pandemics — public health versus emergency response (May 2006)
• Preparing for a severe pandemic (May 2006)
• Skeptics warn bird flu fears are overblown  (by Rebecca Cook Dube) (April 2006)
• Fake Tamiflu (April 2006)
• Talking to wildlife rescuers about their bird flu risk (April 2006)
• Coming out of the closet about pandemic preparedness (April 2006)
• Talking about Bird Flu  (by Carole Sugarman) (March 2006)
• Bird flu’s potential toll warrants alerts  (by Jeffrey P. Koplan) (March 2006)
• The Bird Flu: How Much Fear Is Healthy?  (by Christine Gorman) (March 2006)
• More on Tamiflu stockpiling ethics and psychology (March 2006)
• Message points for a pandemic flu school flyer for parents (March 2006)
• Fear can play role in pandemic readiness, speaker says (by Robert Roos) (February 2006)
• Worst Case Scenarios, Bird Flu, and Risk Perception — Interview with Peter Sandman (Part 2) (January 2006)
• Pandemic risk and the U.S. poultry industry (January 2006)
• Staving Off Panic in a Flu Pandemic (by Jon Hamilton) (January 2006)
• Sifting Through Official Speak on Bird Flu (by Jon Hamilton) (December 2005)
• Talking to the Public about a Pandemic: Some Applications of the WHO Outbreak Communication Guidelines (by Jody Lanard) (December 2005)
• Are you a sitting duck for bird flu? (by Anita Manning) (December 2005)
• The Fear Factor: Preparing the public for a major disaster like pandemic flu without inciting panic is tricky. But the truth goes a long way. (by Nancy Shute) (November 2005)
• Flu Wiki (November 2005)
• Pandemic preparedness: the individual, the government, and the world of finance (November 2005)
• Risk Communication Before and During Epidemics (transcript and video) (September 2005)
• Myanmar takes note of bird flu (September 2005)
• The math behind the U.S. Tamiflu supply (June 2005)
• Bird flu cover-ups (May 2005)
• Magnitude of the communication problem during a flu pandemic (May 2005)
• WHO’s new pandemic influenza phases (May 2005)
• Most Canadians have taken note of the threat of a flu pandemic (by Helen Branswell) (March 2005)
• Communication plans for flu pandemics (March 2005)

SARS, “Ordinary” Flu, and Other Infectious Diseases:

• Was it good or bad crisis communication for Hong Kong to shut down its primary schools because of a flu outbreak? (March 2008)
• Vaccination and autism: Responding to the Hannah Poling case (March 2008)
• Does taking the thimerosal out of vaccines reassure people or scare them? (October 2007)
• A Blind Spot for Bad Guys (June 2005)
• Flu Vaccine Shortage: Segmenting the Audience (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (October 2004)
• Flu vaccine risk communication (October 2004)
• WHO Expert Consultation on Outbreak Communications — Singapore’s SARS Outbreak Communications (by Jody Lanard) (September 2004)
• SARS Exercise: What Are They Doing? (May 2004)
• Flu: A touch of the panic (December 2003)
• Practicing for The Big One: Pennsylvania’s Hepatitis A Outbreak and Risk Communication (by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman) (December 2003)
• Risk Communication Recommendations for Infectious Disease Outbreaks (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (October 2003)
• Crisis Communications to the Public: A Missing Link (from Canada's "Naylor Report" on SARS) (October 2003)
• Media coverage of SARS and monkeypox (July 2003)
• Sars Communication: What Singapore Is Doing Right (by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman) (May 2003)
• “Fear Is Spreading Faster than SARS” — And So It Should! (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard) (April 2003)
• SARS: How Singapore outmanaged the others (by Alan Fung) (April 2003)
• Candour, not PR, will calm virus fears (by Andy Ho) (March 2003)

      

Peter M. Sandman 59 Ridgeview Rd. Princeton NJ 08540-7601	Phone: 1-609-683-4073 Fax: 1-609-683-0566 Email: peter@psandman.com
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