Global Warming

New York City’s West Nile Virus Response:

The initial problem was the outbreak of the West Nile Virus in New York City in the Summer of 1999.  However, the New York City Department of Health created a plan to “improve the public’s awareness of risk for disease, improve the public’s participation in eliminating potential breeding sites, and to provide timely and accurate information related to insecticide spraying.”  Yet, once this plan was put into action, several new problems developed.  Spokespersons for the Department of Health were “not informed about stakeholder perceptions or about various stakeholder groups’ expected levels of concern, fear, hostility, or outrage.” Furthermore, there was an unbalanced number of positive and negative information distributed, which created a trust issue.  In addition to, “disagreements and lack of coordination among risk management organizations” also caused a trust problem. 

The New York City Department of Health did attempt to communicate risk through radio announcements, television commericals, press releases, posters, brochures and fact sheets, and phone lines.  However, these attempts were not successful because of the lack of trust issue.

A Bioterrorist Event:

The problem created in this case study was the audience’s perceived risk.  If a bioterrorist attack were to occur, because the audience’s perceived risk would be so great, people would have severe mental noise.  To prevent this from happening the public needs to become aware of a possible attack.  The educators also need to establish trust with the public in order for them to listen and participate.  If public health agencies are able to do this and decrease the level of perceived risk, then they will be successful in communicating risk.