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Chapter 1 - Why You Need to Care about Emergency Risk Communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2025

Kathleen G. V. Melville
Kathleen G. V. Melville
Affiliation:
Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana
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Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted individuals worldwide, regardless of their geographic location, religious or political beliefs, occupation, or social standing. People’s experiences were directly impacted by lockdown measures, physical distancing, masks, vaccine recommendations, or illness of self or friend or family member, as well as by how their local and national elected officials and public health leaders managed and communicated about the pandemic. As people went into lockdown, they went online and found a proliferation of information both true and false about the pandemic. The constant deluge of online information, the new and evolving outbreak, and the worldwide impact created a complex health emergency.  The COVID-19 pandemic brought emergency risk communication to the forefront of every health agency in the United States, from city to county to state to federal levels of government. This chapter provides an overview of public health preparedness; explains how Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) is different from day-to-day public health communication; summarizes the CERC framework and phase-based messaging; and outlines how risk perception impacts the way people process information about health threats. A student case study analyzes a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

Keywords

CERCCrisis Emergency Risk Communicationrisk perceptionCOVIDCOVID-19pandemicrisk communicationpublic health preparednessoutbreaksoutbreak communicationLegionnaires’ disease outbreakCERC analysisCERC case study
Type
Chapter
Information
Risk Communication in Public Health Emergencies
Practical Guidance Rooted in Theory
 , pp. 1 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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