A teachable moment in the Hawaii false alarm
One of the best-known Greek myths tells the story of Cassandra, Princess of Troy, who was granted the power to foretell the future by the god Apollo as a gift in exchange for her love. …
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Articles
Hard work ahead on new emergency alert system
Shortly before 10 a.m. on October 22, 2014, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, standing guard at the steps of the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa, tragically lost his life when a gunman opened fire. It was …
Read MoreHurricane Matthew and the problem of communicating fear
The history of risk communication is chock full of examples where threats are ignored or downplayed (Ebola in West Africa), details of the threat are concealed (SARS), or populations are given inappropriate reassurance (Hurricane Katrina). …
Read MoreRisk Communication Preparedness: MERS CoV and The Stigma Dilemma
"A threat to the entire world." This is how Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization has characterized the MERS coronavirus. Until this year, the virus had been mostly focused in Saudi Arabia, …
Read MoreThe hardline strategy on vaccine hesitancy
A funny thing happened during a recent workshop at Carleton University -- a room full of public health experts and practitioners all but stood up and cheered for the federal Minister of Health. Well, it wasn't …
Read MoreUncertainty management: communicating the Zika risk
“The government is advising Colombian women to delay becoming pregnant for six to eight months…” The statements of Colombian Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria in response to the Zika virus threat and echoed by other regional health …
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Communicating the Zika risk
One of the things that makes the spread of the Zika virus so worrying is the fact that scientists know relatively little about it. This is making the task of communicating its risk extremely difficult …
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