Moral panic and pandemics

Gilman, Sander L.

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60862-8

Cited by 36 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Several researchers have pointed to the phenomenon of social response resulting from the actions or communications of officials, rather than from the characteristics of the disease itself [ 19 , 20 ]. By calling for an intervention, public officials draw additional media attention to the disease, making the public even more concerned and drawing attention away from other, possibly more pressing, public health concerns.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

2015

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BackgroundStudies of cost-effective disease prevention have typically focused on the tradeoff between the cost of disease transmission and the cost of applying control measures. We present a novel approach that also accounts for the cost of social disruptions resulting from the spread of disease. These disruptions, which we call social response, can include heightened anxiety, strain on healthcare infrastructure, economic losses, or violence.MethodologyThe spread of disease and social response are simulated under several different intervention strategies. The modeled social response depends upon the perceived risk of the disease, the extent of disease spread, and the media involvement. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we estimate the total number of infections and total social response for each strategy. We then identify the strategy that minimizes the expected total cost of the disease, which includes the cost of the disease itself, the cost of control measures, and the cost of social response.ConclusionsThe model-based simulations suggest that the least-cost disease control strategy depends upon the perceived risk of the disease, as well as media intervention. The most cost-effective solution for diseases with low perceived risk was to implement moderate control measures. For diseases with higher perceived severity, such as SARS or Ebola, the most cost-effective strategy shifted toward intervening earlier in the outbreak, with greater resources. When intervention elicited increased media involvement, it remained important to control high severity diseases quickly. For moderate severity diseases, however, it became most cost-effective to implement no intervention and allow the disease to run its course. Our simulation results imply that, when diseases are perceived as severe, the costs of social response have a significant influence on selecting the most cost-effective strategy.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

2015

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“…During any disease outbreak of pandemic proportions, the very term 'pandemic' may often trigger panic among people, and it is not exclusively scientific considerations but also public response that are key to what the COVID-19 outbreak should be labelled as and how public healthcare strategy should be implemented. [19] In these times people may fear for their own and others' lives and/or livelihoods, which may lead to people's refusal to subject themselves to testing or quarantine. [20] The wellbeing of a society as a whole relies heavily on the co-dependent relationship between that society and the individuals who comprise it.…”

Section: Refusal Of Voluntary Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 and quarantine orders: A practical approach

Botes

Thaldar

2020

S Afr Med J

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“…However, in France, as in many western countries, the public health authorities failed to convince a large proportion of the public to undertake health protective behaviour. On the basis of their local experience, many authors have argued in both the lay and scientific media, including prestigious biomedical journals, that this novel influenza pandemic triggered public panic in many developed countries (Bonneux and Van Damme 2010, Gilman 2010). Although there is still no agreement on the objective criteria that accurately define the pattern of collective behaviour that may qualify as a panic, this generally refers to ‘an explosion of public concern about a problem – typically unconnected with any sudden change in the underlying risk – followed by an also sudden collapse of concern’ (Loewenstein et al 2001: 278).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why the French did not choose to panic: a dynamic analysis of the public response to the influenza pandemic

Sherlaw¹,

Raude²

2012

Sociology Health & Illness

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To understand the French public's response to the 2009 pandemic A ⁄ H1N1 influenza health threat a sequence analysis framework has been employed mobilising different theoretical strands such as innovations diffusion theory, surprise theory and social representation theory. These tend to suggest that disease episodes, public health policy and the public's response should be considered within a larger socio-cognitive frame incorporating representations anchored by prior disease episodes and campaigns. It is suggested in this article that the public's response was greatly influenced by the pervasive anchoring of the social representations of the pandemic threat to the 1918 Spanish flu in the lay and scientific media. These representations were eventually seen not to match the reality of the disease and consequently the French public did not panic during the 2009 pandemic. This hypothesis has been tested empirically by examining retrospective media, bibliographical data and an analysis of risk perception carried out through three cross-sectional studies prior to and during the pandemic episode and one month after the launch of the vaccination campaign. These findings suggest that alarmist framings of health threats may be counterproductive since they may reduce the capacity of public health organisations to mobilise the public in the case of more serious emerging disease.Keywords: pandemic influenza, framing, representations, sequence analysis, panic IntroductionThis article focuses on the dynamics of risk representations and their potential impact on precautionary behaviour in relation to pandemic influenza among French adults. During the last decade pandemic influenza has received considerable attention from the scientific, political and lay communities worldwide. Prior to the emergence of so-called 'swine flu' in North America, the increasing magnitude of avian influenza outbreaks had raised the spectre of a new and potentially devastating influenza pandemic with consequences comparable to those of Spanish flu (1918)(1919). Major public concern was expressed that the current highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses might mutate into more highly infectious forms and acquire the ability of person to person transmission. Such concern was not surprising since pandemic influenza involved most of the properties that have been consistently found to contribute to large media coverage, strong institutional attention and high perceptions of risk (Renn and Rohrmann 2000, Slovic 2000). Indeed, the disease caused by an invisible, unfamiliar, communicable, potentially catastrophic, emerging infectious agent remains at least partly beyond individual and social control due to the extreme difficulty of detecting it before the first symptoms appear. In the spring of 2009 the spread of a novel A ⁄ H1N1 influenza virus triggered the worldwide implementation of mitigating responses planned by public health organisations. Roughly, two major phases may be identified: (i) in the absence of available vaccine, the public was st...

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Moral panic and pandemics

Cited by 36 publications

References 2 publications

Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

COVID-19 and quarantine orders: A practical approach

Why the French did not choose to panic: a dynamic analysis of the public response to the influenza pandemic

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