| Website Columns |
Articles On the Web |
Sandman In the News |
Guestbook Comments |
Video and Audio Files |
| Introduction & Orientation |
Precaution Advocacy |
Outrage Management |
Crisis Communication |
Infectious Diseases |
| Website Columns |
Articles On the Web |
Sandman In the News |
Guestbook Comments |
Video and Audio Files |
| Introduction & Orientation |
Precaution Advocacy |
Outrage Management |
Crisis Communication |
Infectious Diseases |
Il processo dell’Aquila agli scienziati dei terremoti e il rischio della fuga
Published in Corriere della Sera, October 22, 2012
Convicting and Maybe Imprisoning Scientists for Bad Risk Communication: Italy’s L’Aquila Earthquake
Emails to Anna Meldolesi, October 16 and October 22, 2012
Report: Complacency, misperception stymie quest for better flu vaccines
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), October 15, 2012
A game-changing approach to investigating flu vaccines
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), October 15, 2012
Email to Lisa Schnirring, October 14, 2012
Re-edited excerpt from a May 17, 2012 Guestbook entry
Misoversimplification: The Communicative Accuracy Standard Distinguishes Simplifying from Misleading
Arousing “counter-outrage” about where your activist opponents get their funding
How should Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson have apologized for padding his résumé?
2 years after Gulf oil spill, Louisiana seafood still battling negative perception
Published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 19, 2012
Why Do Many People Still Refuse to Eat Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico?
Email to Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, April 17, 2012
H1N1 cases in India sparking media hype
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), April 9, 2012
India’s Response to Swine Flu – Still Weird
Email to Lisa Schnirring, April 9, 2012
Markets in Transition: Managing Outrage, Icky Pallets, Safety Issues at the Plant and Looking Ahead
Posted on the website of Pallet Enterprise, April 1, 2012
Talking to the Public about H5N1 Biotech Research (original longer version)
Submitted to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, March 18, 2012
Talking to the Public about
H5N1 Biotech Research 
(accepted shorter version)
Published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, April 15, 2012
WHO H5N1 study group extends moratorium, calls for full publication
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), February 17, 2012
The H5N1 Debate Needs Respectful Dialogue, Not “Education” or One-Sided Advocacy
My original email to the reporter on February 17, 2012
Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective Risk Communication
Published by the American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax VA, 1993
Risk = Hazard + Outrage: A Formula for Effective Risk Communication
(Note: Link goes to onsite descriptions/links to offsite video and onsite audio files)
Produced by the American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax VA, 1991
Crisis Communication: Guidelines for Action
(Note: Link goes to onsite descriptions/links to offsite video and onsite audio files)
Produced by the American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax VA, 2004
Flu Vaccination of Healthcare Workers: Two Risk Communication Issues
Comments on draft recommendations 
of the Healthcare Personnel Influenza Vaccination Subgroup, National Vaccine Program Office, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, submitted January 14, 2012
Presented at the Oracle Chief Security Officer Summit, San Francisco CA, October 4, 2011
Validating the adjustment reaction: “Of course you’re upset….”
Finding a Ph.D. research topic that tests one of my risk communication “principles”
Flu vaccine efficacy: Time to revise public messages?
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), November 4, 2011
Overselling Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Risks Undermining Public Health Credibility
Email to Robert Roos, October 27, 2011
Flu vaccine not as effective as thought, new study says
Broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, October 25, 2011
Sarcasm isn’t an effective way to persuade parents to vaccinate their kids
Figuring out how risky it is to fly your own airplane – the pesky “denominator problem”
Published in Vaccine, vol. 24, 2006, pp. 3921–3928
On day of vaccine forum, 2 more measles cases confirmed in Minn.
Broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, April 27, 2011
Interview with Peter M. Sandman by Lorna Benson, April 27, 2011
Is This the Poster Food for a Radiation Menace?
Published in The New York Times, April 12, 2011, p. D5
In Defense of Iodine Snatchers
Posted on the Turnstyle website, April 1, 2011
Risk Communication Formula: Avoid Half-Truths, Manage the Outrage (642kB)
Published in PR News, March 14, 2011
In Japan, a New Legacy of Mistrust
Posted on the Turnstyle website, March 23, 2011
Reputation 3.0 (357kB Adobe .pdf)
Published in the March 2011 issue of Intellectual Property Magazine, pp. 20–22
This article is based in part on Maura O’Malley’s January 31 telephone interview with Peter M. Sandman. The complete interview launches an MP3 audio file from this site: “Social Media’s Impact on Reputation Management.”
Produced by the American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax VA, 1994 (76-minute video; 1.7GB MP4 file)
Interview with Peter M. Sandman by Maura O’Malley, January 31, 2011
Interview conducted October 27, 2010
Outrage Management Course
(Link goes to onsite list of the twelve video clips posted online.)
Presented September 16–17, 2010 to Rio Tinto Mining Company, Brisbane, Australia
Introduction to Outrage Management
Posted on the pearltrees website, January 6, 2011
Why – and how – the United Nations should have admitted its forces may have brought cholera to Haiti
Telling people explicitly what you don’t mean
Prospects for persuading activists and public health officials to be more honest
Carnival Cruises Must Bail Out Its Image
Published in Marketing Daily, November 15, 2010 (posted on the Marketing Daily website November 14, 2010)
My original email to the reporter, “Carnival Manages to Avoid Defensiveness about Its Crippled Cruise Ship” is posted on this site.
Did the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico create a crisis for the oil and gas industry?
Talking about risk reduction when risk elimination isn’t possible: the case of dengue
Links to the “current” Swine Flu Pandemic Communication Update have been removed.
That index has been revised and reorganized.
Posted on the Newsweek website, August 5, 2010
Why aren't people more worried about cell phone health risks?
Curriculum Vitae Part 1: General Information
Curriculum Vitae Part 2: Publications
Curriculum Vitae Part 3: Representative List of Consulting and Workshop Clients
Curriculum Vitae Part 4: Selected Convention Papers, Seminars, and Public Presentations
Solicited letter to the editor, London Evening Standard, June 4, 2010
Communicating about the BP Oil Spill: What to Say; Who Should Talk
Posted on Daily Kos, May 30, 2010
Swine Flu Pandemic Communication Challenges and Lessons Learned
Responses to emailed questions from Lisa Schnirring of CIDRAP News
BP’s Communication Response to the Deepwater Horizon Spill
BBC Radio 4 interview with Peter M. Sandman, broadcasted on the “PM” newscast, May 3, 2010
Was it wrong to warn people even though the swine flu pandemic was turning out mild?
How did Goldman Sachs become a scapegoat?
Are we learning the right lessons from the Goldman Sachs controversy?
Risk Communication (11-MB Adobe .pdf)
Posted on the Vivian Krause’s “Fish Farm Fuss”
When a government decides swine flu is mild: Talking about crisis management policy changes
Education and training for risk communication
How to do experimental research to test risk communication principles
Meeting the needs of relatives of disaster victims
The Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal: contrition, dilemma-sharing, and accountability
My biggest regret: not building a next generation
Talking about uncertainty when hazard levels are unclear
Outrage management via online social media
Making pandemic communications (and all crisis communications) provisional
How should WHO have integrated severity into its pandemic communications?
Why did the CDC misrepresent its swine flu mortality data – innumeracy, dishonesty, or what?
European hearing airs WHO pandemic response, critics’ charges
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota), January 26, 2010
An expanded version of my email to the reporter (coauthored with my wife and colleague Jody Lanard), “It’s Not a Fake Pandemic – but WHO’s Defense Lacks Candor,” is posted on this site.
Why Seniors Really Should Fear Swine Flu
Blogged on the Newsweek website, January 8, 2010
Three Paradigms of Radiological Risk Communication: Alerting, Reassuring, Guiding (Three off-site video files, or on-site audio files)
Presented to the National Public Health Information Coalition, Miami Beach FL, October 21, 2009
Trust the Public with More of the Truth: What I Learned in 40 Years of Risk Communication
The 2009 Berreth Lecture, presented to the National Public Health Information Coalition, Miami Beach FL, October 20, 2009
What should we tell people about vaccination if the pandemic wave is ebbing?
Are people apathetic about the environment, or is it something else?
Why didn’t President Obama get vaccinated against swine flu? Should he have?
Broadcast on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” November 6, 2009
My email to the reporter (Prioritizing among Precautions: The Best Is the Enemy of the Good) is posted on this site.
Broadcast on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” November 2, 2009
Sorting through panic and anxiety
Published in the Toronto Star, October 30, 2009
Food Safety Risk Communications
(Note: This link launches an MP3 audio file from this site.)
Presented at the Maple Leaf Food Safety Symposium, Mississauga Canada, October 23, 2009
Uncertainty over H1N1 warranted, experts say
Published in the Toronto Star, October 9, 2009
Presented to the European Respiratory Society international conference, Vienna, Austria, September 14, 2009
Curriculum Vitae Part 1: General Information
Curriculum Vitae Part 2: Publications
Curriculum Vitae Part 3: Representative List of Consulting and Workshop Clients
Curriculum Vitae Part 4: Selected Convention Papers, Seminars, and Public Presentations
Distributed by Project Syndicate, July 27, 2009
WHO suspends reporting of H1N1 case counts
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota), July 16, 2009
British public slow to respond to pandemic
Posted on Emerging Health Threats Forum, July 16, 2009
My original response ( It Isn’t Easy to Arouse Pandemic Concern. What Do We Need People to Know? ) is posted on this site.
Using public health concerns and public health departments to sell climate change action
Pandemic prioritizing: Vulnerable people versus essential people
Critics say “mild” a misleading term for H1N1
Distributed by Canadian Press, June 28, 2009
My email (Is Swine Flu “Mild”? Are We Safe If We Have No “Underlying Conditions”?) to the reporter is on this site.
How do you engage people in mid-crisis long-term planning? Is it even possible? En Français: Comment faites-vous pour amener des gens à la planification à long terme, au milieu d’une crise? Est-ce même possible?
Communication expert endorses WHO’s delay on pandemic declaration
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota), June 12, 2009
My original exchange of emails with the reporter (“Reactions to the WHO’s Phase 6 Declaration”) is on this site.
We’re Living in a Pandemic: Now What Do We Do?
Blogged in Nancy Shute’s “On Parenting” blog, U.S. News & World Report, June 11, 2009
I later posted a longer comment on the blog entry.
Swine flu worst case scenarios: warn people now or wait till things start getting nasty? En Français: Pires scénarios de grippe porcine: avertir les gens maintenant ou attendre que les choses commencent à mal tourner?
WHO under pressure from member states to rewrite pandemic requirement
Distributed by Canadian Press, May 22, 2009
My original email to the reporter (“On WHO Changing the Definition of ‘Pandemic’”) is on this site.
Pandemics: good hygiene is not enough En Français: Pandémie: une bonne hygiène ne suffit pas
Published in Nature, May 21, 2009, pp. 322–323
This is a major abridgment and minor updating of my April 29 website column, “The Swine Flu Crisis: The Government Is Preparing for the Worst While Hoping for the Best – It Needs to Tell the Public to Do the Same Thing!”
An Adobe Acrobat file (707-kB pdf) of the complete article is also available.
Managing the outrage of extremists
Selling pandemic prep to family and friendsEn Français: Vendre l'état de préparation à une pandémie, à la famille et aux amis
Visualizing a mild pandemic: The risk comparison to 36,000 U.S. annual flu deathsEn Français: Visualiser une pandémie légère: la comparaison de risques avec 36,000 décès annuels aux États-Unis, causés par la grippe [saisonnière]
Posted on newmatilda.com, May 12, 2009
Health Check
(Note: This link is to the MP3 audio file on this site.)
Broadcast on BBC World Service, May 10–12, 2009
H1N1 flu – are we preparing for the worst or hoping for a break?
Published in the Jamaica Observer, May 9, 2009
Avoiding “warning fatigue” over swine flu
Posted on Emerging Health Threats Forum, May 8, 2009
H1N1 outbreak revealed seasonal flu lingered in Minn.
Posted by Minnesota Public Radio, May 6, 2009
Flu overhyped? Some say officials ‘cried swine’ En Español: “¿Se exageró la nota sobre los peligros de la gripe porcina?”
Posted by the Associated Press, May 7, 2009
Posted by Haaretz, May 7, 2009
Behavioral research can help curb the spread of swine flu – but is anyone listening?
Posted on the American Psychological Association website, April 30, 2009
Blog entry, May 3, 2009
What happens if swine flu goes away?
Posted on the Reuters website, May 4 , 2009
Between a virus and a hard place
An editorial posted on the Nature website, May 7, 2009
Broadcast on KUNC radio, May 5, 2009
5 Ways to Manage the Family’s Swine Flu
Blogged on the U.S. News & World Report website, May 1, 2009
Swine Flu Questions and Answers
(Note: This link is to the MP3 audio file on this site.)
Broadcast on PRI’s “The World” (National Public Radio), April 30, 2009
Broadcast on BBC World Service “Business Daily,” April 29, 2009
The Swine Flu Crisis: The Government Is Preparing for the Worst While Hoping for the Best – It Needs to Tell the Public to Do the Same Thing! En Français: La crise de la grippe porcine: Le gouvernement se prépare au pire tout en espérant le meilleur – il devrait dire à la population de faire la même chose!
Experts worry mild disease outside of Mexico hampers bid to get people to prepare
Distributed by Canadian Press, April 29, 2009
Is America Prepared for a Pandemic?
Published in the Washington Post, April 28, 2009
My original email (“The Government is Preparing for the Worst While Hoping for the Best – Now It Needs to Tell the Public to Do the Same Thing!”) is on this site.
WHO raises pandemic alert to phase 4
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota) , April 27, 2009
My original email (“Impacts of the WHO Ratchet from Pandemic Phase 3 to Phase 4”) is on this site.
More US swine flu cases, Mexico illnesses raise pandemic questions WHO declares public health emergency as US swine flu cases rise
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota), April 23 and April 25, 2009
Climate Change Risk Communication Dialogue
Excerpts from the RISKANAL listserv, March 24–25, 2009 (plus some follow-up offline correspondence)
Interview with Dr. Peter Sandman
Posted on the National Public Relations website, March 9, 2009
Climate change attitudes: not just apathy versus denial
Using risk comparisons to show a catastrophe is unlikely
Climate Change Risk Communication: The Problem of Psychological Denial
Curriculum Vitae, Part 1: General Information
Curriculum Vitae, Part 2: Publications
Curriculum Vitae, Part 3: Representative List of Consulting and Workshop Clients
Curriculum Vitae, Part 4: Selected Convention Papers, Seminars, and Public Presentations
Cass Sunstein, Risk, Cost-Benefit and OHS
Posted on his “Safety-at-Work Blog,” January 26, 2009
Posted on his blog, January 20, 2009
A different version was published in The Age, January 20, 2009, under the title “Bad news must be told.”
Convincing Health Care Workers to Get a Flu Shot … Without the Hype
Peter M. SandmanWebsite design and management provided by SnowTao Editing Services.