Communications

Five Key Elements – All smallpox communications plans should address (22.V13.58-73)

The first element that your plan needs to address is the target populations or audiences. You need to start by identifying the primary populations or audiences that you need to reach with your messages and your efforts. There are four audiences that should be considered.

  1. People for whom smallpox vaccination is now recommended. This group of people is going to have a number of questions and a number of needs relative to communications and education.
  2. People for whom smallpox vaccination is now recommended, but who are contraindicated or are not interested in receiving smallpox vaccine. These people are going to want reassurances that they, too, are protected without being vaccinated.
  3. People for whom the vaccination recommendation will or may be extended. There are obviously some people who will be among the first to receive smallpox vaccination and others for whom smallpox vaccination is recommended, but they will not be part of the immediate vaccination efforts. These people will have questions as to when will they be able to receive smallpox vaccine and why they will have to wait for a few weeks before they can get it.
  4. A fourth group that you need to be prepared for is the general public, including the media. You need to be thinking about the kinds of messages that you want to disseminate and provide to members of the general public about your program and about these recommendations.

The second important thing to do in terms of developing a communications plan is to articulate or develop your primary communications messages. This needs to be done on two levels. First, what are your overall communications messages? What do you want to say to everybody? After you’ve articulated or identified those messages, the next thing you need to do is identify the primary messages for each of your identified populations or audiences.

The CDC has a number of primary messages regarding smallpox vaccination. “The probability of an intentional release of the smallpox virus is low, but since the consequences of an outbreak would be great, we must be prepared.” One of the first messages is in regards to the likelihood of a smallpox release or outbreak. Their primary message states that the probability of an intentional release of smallpox virus is low, but since the consequences would be great, we must be prepared.

“ Our recommendations strengthen national and state preparedness by making licensed vaccine available to those people who would be called upon to respond to a smallpox release or outbreak.” The second primary message speaks to the need for these recommendations and the purpose of these recommendations. These recommendations strengthen national and state preparedness by making licensed vaccine available to those people who would be called upon to respond to a smallpox release or outbreak.

“ Smallpox vaccination before a confirmed smallpox case or outbreak provides response teams and other first responders personal protection from smallpox disease. It thus enables them to rapidly take the actions necessary to protect the public, which includes identifying people who need to vaccinated to control the outbreak as well as establishing public vaccination clinics.” The third primary message speaks to why it’s important that these people receive smallpox vaccination. And the message there is that smallpox vaccination before a confirmed smallpox case or outbreak provides response team members and other first responders personal protection from smallpox disease.

“ By protecting those people who would be initially called upon to respond: We further strengthen our abilty to protect the public; We increase the capacity and capabilities of the public health system and the nation’s hospitals to respond to, and control, a smallpox outbreak.” Thanks to this personal protection from smallpox disease, it enables them to rapidly take the actions necessary to protect the public, which includes identifying people who need to be vaccinated to control the outbreak as well as establishing public vaccination clinics. In other words, by vaccinating the people who would first be called upon to respond to a smallpox outbreak, we are strengthening our ability to quickly and effectively respond and in doing so, we are protecting the public.

The third part of effective communication plans is to get prepared now to communicate about vaccine reactions, vaccine risks, and adverse events. We have learned there’s much interest among people when it comes to immunization, such as the kinds of reactions that are typical and the risks associated with immunization and vaccine adverse events – including how to recognize them, how to respond to them, and who to call if a person thinks that they may be experiencing an adverse event. You need to have all the aforementioned information ready to go right now in order to effectively communicate to people when they want that information. In addition, you need to establish your systems and methods for getting messages, information and materials to your intended populations today.

Finally, you can also expect there’s going to be a lot of interest and demand from the media, the public, and policymakers for information and it’s important that you establish the protocols for meeting those demands so that your response staff can continue to do their work. You should assume there will be frequent, perhaps daily, information requests from the media and public. They will want updates and status reports. They’ll be interested in the number of people who are eligible to be vaccinated, the number of people you have vaccinated, and the number of people who have suffered reactions to the vaccine. You need to have systems in place to get that kind of information on a regular and frequent basis and also have systems in place so that the media and members of the public know where to get that information. 

    Top of Page