The H1N1 pandemic: media frames, stigmatization and coping

Abstract

BackgroundThroughout history, people have soothed their fear of disease outbreaks by searching for someone to blame. Such was the case with the April 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak. Mexicans and other Latinos living in the US were quickly stigmatized by non-Latinos as carriers of the virus, partly because of news reports on the outbreak’s alleged origin in Mexican pig farms.MethodsIn this exploratory study we examined the psychological processes of cue convergence and associative priming, through which many people likely conflated news of the H1N1 outbreak with pre-existing cognitive scripts that blamed Latino immigrants for a variety of social problems. We also used a transactional model of stress and coping to analyze the transcripts from five focus groups, in order to examine the ways in which a diverse collection of New England residents appraised the threat of H1N1, processed information about stereotypes and stigmas, and devised personal strategies to cope with these stressors.ResultsTwelve themes emerged in the final wave of coding, with most of them appearing at distinctive points in the stress and coping trajectories of focus group participants. Primary and secondary appraisals were mostly stressful or negative, with participants born in the USA reporting more stressful responses than those who were not. Latino participants reported no stressful primary appraisals, but spoke much more often than Whites or Non-Hispanic Blacks about negative secondary appraisals. When interactions between participants dealt with stigmas regarding Latinos and H1N1, Latinos in our focus groups reported using far more negative coping strategies than Whites or Non-Hispanic Blacks. When discussions did not focus on stereotypes or stigmas, Latino participants spoke much more often about positive coping strategies compared to members of these same groups.ConclusionsParticipants in all five focus groups went through a similar process of stress and coping in response to the threat of H1N1, though individual responses varied by race and ethnicity. Stigmatization has often been common during pandemics, and public health and emergency preparedness practitioners can help to mitigate its impacts by developing interventions to address the social stressors that occur during outbreaks in highly-localized geographic regions.

Drivers of earlier infectious disease outbreak detection: a systematic literature review

“…Infectious disease outbreaks can spread rapidly, causing enormous losses to individual health, national economies, and social wellbeing. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Through the early detection of an infectious disease outbreak, a small outbreak can potentially be contained at the local level, thereby reducing adverse impacts. [7][8][9][10][11] Early detection has been and remains the current narrative of infectious disease surveillance.…”

The COVID‐19 pandemic and mental health impacts

“…Throughout history, people have sought to allocate blame to someone in order to calm their fear of disease outbreaks (McCauley et al 2013). This fear and othering is often present with pandemics.…”

“…This fear and othering is often present with pandemics. For example, the 2014 Ebola outbreak was considered an African problem resulting in discrimination against those of African descent (Monson 2013), while the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak in the USA saw Mexican and migrant workers targeted for discrimination (McCauley et al 2013). In the past century, a number of serious outbreaks of influenza have developed in Southeast Asia, for example Avian H7N9 Influenza, 2013; H2N2 Pandemic, 1957‐1958; H1N1 Pandemic, 1918 (Sugalski & Ullo 2018).…”

Are you Concerned? Patient Testimonials in Medical Communication Affect Healthy Recipients' Emotions and Memory

“…Winterbottom et al, 2008). This is noteworthy, because scientific advancements such as invasive medical treatments are often transferred to a broader public by media coverage (cf., McCauley et al, 2013) in which techniques for making the reported content more vivid and appealing (i.e., emotion-eliciting) are popular (cf. Gilbert and Ovadia, 2011).…”

“…However, information about diseases and treatments is also consumed by unconcerned individuals. For instance, many newspapers have a regular page on health issues and medical research is frequently covered by different media (e.g., McCauley et al, 2013). What healthy and unconcerned lay people take from this communication might affect their future behavior (e.g., they may be concerned with the respective disease despite their health or they may want to give advice to somebody else).…”