“Why Should I Be Scared?” Epidemic Uncertainties and Risk Construction in Emerging Infectious Disease Epidemics

Abstract

ABSTRACT The onset of emerging infectious disease epidemics is marked by uncertainties regarding the nature of the causative pathogen, mode of transmission, and preventive measures among other factors. While scientists are developing knowledge on these subjects, people must adapt to these uncertainties. We explore risk construction in the epidemic context by conceptualizing risk as a knowledge construct and identifying the constitutive elements that influence its construction. Using qualitative interviews and comparing three locations in Ghana during the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, we argue that the construction of risk is influenced by a combination of disease, networked information, and information on enabled factors—factors triggered by the epidemic context (geographic location, government policies, absence of confirmed cases). These enabled factors, we suggest, shape the disease risk characteristics that amplify or attenuate risk perception and influence health behavior.