Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication in Health Contexts: Applying the CDC Model to Pandemic Influenza

Abstract

This chapter explores the development of risk communication as a form of health communication and describes those factors that led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to adopt the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) approach. It identifies CDC’s response to the anthrax episode as a primary factor that precipitated the emergence of CERC as a framework. The chapter explores how the CDC’s CERC framework has been used to inform communication efforts associated with avian influenza (H5N1) and the threat of pandemic influenza. Pandemic influenza is arguably the most significant public heath threat to emerge in the last several decades. The chapter demonstrates how an integrated crisis and risk communication approach can function to inform the early states of a crisis. It illustrates how an integrated communication approach is used in responding to a global threat to pubic health. The chapter offers suggestions for how the CERC model might inform future efforts to communicate about public health issues.