Communications

Critical Issues and Activities

Effectively and Consistently Addressing Communication Challenges

Implementing and broadening your pre-event smallpox vaccination recommendations is likely to be interpreted by some (perhaps many) as an indication of increased threat, or a likelihood of a smallpox outbreak or attack. It may become difficult to communicate and educate people about pre-event immunization priorities. Public and provider education must avoid increasing perceived disease threat and fostering concerns about the safety of currently recommended vaccines. Your messages and materials must effectively address the benefit-risk concerns of potential vaccinees. When forming your communications in the pre-event period, you should minimize communication problems, as much as possible, by developing needed materials and strategies now.

Instill and maintain public confidence in local public health systems – and their ability to respond to and manage a smallpox outbreak – by providing accurate, rapid and sufficient information. Rapidly provide the public, health care providers, policy makers, and the media access to accurate, consistent, and comprehensive information. Involve your communications people now in any discussions and decisions that will require or involve effective communications. Remember, if communications is expected to be critical to success, communications people must be involved early on.

Pre-event Communications Needs at Local Level

Each local public health agency should have a local plan that:

  1. Identifies key messages, partners, and message delivery plans.
  2. Prepares local official and health authorities for the local media interest likely to be generated by smallpox.
  3. Prepare local officials to effectively handle vaccine adverse reactions and vaccine adverse events.

The local agency also should have portfolios of communication and educational materials, resources and spokespeople who can speak the same messages, but geared towards the audience of the local community. And the local agency should work out ahead of time how this information will be disseminated, as well as how new messages can be cleared at the local level and coordinated with the national level.

Current planning efforts need to identify and address the social equity and liability issues associated with ring vaccination or other highly focused immunization strategies.

Assuming adequate vaccine supplies in the event of an outbreak, consider complementing focused vaccination with other strategies – for example, mass or permissive vaccination. It would be very helpful to have plans in place for “mass” immunization, including education and communication strategies and materials.

If significant changes are made to the current pre-attack vaccination recommendations then:

  1. Be prepared to provide information that effectively addresses the benefit-and-risk concerns of potential vaccinees, such as tangible evidence of increased threat.
  2. Be prepared to undertake significant physician and public education efforts, such as efforts that enable physicians to effectively discuss vaccine benefits and risks with patients.

CDC Efforts

CDC Efforts to Date Include:

  1. Formative research with clinicians and members of the public to identify smallpox related knowledge, beliefs and concerns.
  2. Identify “likely to be asked” questions and then preparing answers and “Q&A” (Question and Answer) documents.
  3. Develop and testing tools that expand and prepare state and local communications capacity and skills. This includes things such as live training courses satellite courses, and interactive CD-ROMS.
  4. Developing a “portfolio” of messages and materials for health care providers, prospective vaccinees, and partners. 
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