Information requirements in emergency situations, openness ... · Information requirements in emergency situations, openness in crisis and risk communication Knut I. Tønsberg, Senior

Information requirements in

emergency situations, openness in

crisis and risk communicationKnut I. Tønsberg,

Senior Advisor

Communication Department

Norwegian Directorate for Health

[email protected]

• Openness is unavoidable in a crisis

• Openness is not enough in risk

communication

• How you communicate ahead of the crisis is

essential for the outcome of your crisis

communication

• Building trust and risk communication are

linked together

2Asker31 October 2008

Asker31 October 2008 | 3

Better be quick

• ”On 7 July, in the first two hours following the explosions on the Tube, there was a clear gap between what was known by the media and what the Police were prepared to confirm (…) We recommend ... plans to provide basic advice, as opposed to detailed information, for the public within an hour of a major incident if at all possible”

LONDONASSEMBLY – Report of the 7 July 2005 Review Committee

• ”The first message received on a subject sets the stage. The speed with which you respond to the public can be an indicator of how prepared you are to respond to the emergency”

Centers for Disease Controll and Prevention, US


• ”Active public are predicted to select, seek

and retain the information that is consistent

with their (prior) position (…) Outraged people

naturally tend to resist learning that they are

technically wrong”

Peter Sandman www.psandman.com



When Canada called the emergency

” We were dealing with an outbreak where we did not know for sure that it was a virus, we did not know what symptoms and what order of symptoms SARS presented with. We had a vague idea that some of the symptoms might include fever and cough. We did not realize that about 30 per cent of patients also could present with diarrhea. We did not know how long it incubated for. We did not know with certainty whether it was droplet spread or whether it was airborne. We did not knowwhen it was infectious. We did not have a diagnostic test for it and still do not have an accurate diagnostic test. We had no way of preventing it, we had no vaccine and we had no treatment. What we had was an illness with many unknowns and virtually no knowns. ”

Campbell-report

• All information must be verified, the first

information is most often wrong

Knut Framstad, Gilde, januar 2006 - one month before the e-coli tragedy


• (During the BSA crisis organisations showed

a)Tendency to gather information rather than

focus on the need to take a decission

Sir Leam Donaldson, Departement of Health, London about big issues thrown up

by BSE enquiry, Reykjavik May 2004


• Prior risk communication is essential

• Teachable moments must be used to communicate possible risk situations and build trust

• The Murmansk case: taking the small problems seriously & working on the wreck made the media more positive – (Inger Margrethe yesterday)


Risk is the product of possible

consequences and probability


Seesaw up


Trying to calm down - fear-reaction

Seesaw down

Worst case information – independent evaluation of likelihood

| 12

• There are numerous surveys indicating that patients around the world strongly desire warning information pertaining to perscription of drugs…the results suggest (warning) may produce a much more tolerant attitude toward a beneficial but high risk dug

• Paul Slovic: The Peception of Risk (2004) page 267



Tolerable versus intolerable risks• Natural versus technological

• Seen – hidden

• Known - unknown

• Old - new

• Familiar - unfamilar

• Voluntary - random

• Preventable - unavoidable

• Controlled – uncontrolled

• Entertaining – boring

• Profitable - costly

• Britt Mari Drottz Sjøberg’s research about

how lay people and expers tend to look

differently upon risks:

-

Asker31 October 2008 15

Experter vs allmänhet

• 21 Riskbedömningar av

kärnavfall

• Allmänhet (public)

• Ingenjörer (experts)

• Nuclear experts


Meeting the risk:

• Talk about worst case

• Err on the alarming side

• Talk about your preparations and contingency

plans

• Tell people what they might do to prepare

themselves

Three Mile Island nuclear incident and

communication crisis:

”By the time the Health Department declared

the milk safe to drink, virtually everyone

believed it”

http://www.psandman.com/articles/3-mile2.pdf

Asker31 October 2008 18

Tell people how scary the

situation is – and watch them

get calmer

Peter Sandman,

www.psandman.com19Asker31 October 2008


Do media always dramatize?• ”In a crisis ... even journalists abandon their

normal preference for hype and hysteria, and tend to over-reassure, as they did during the 2001 anthrax attacks”

• Three Mile Island crisis: ”As usual during an emergency (and only during an emergency) the media sat on the reassuring seat of the seesaw …mediacoverage was full of false reassurances. And false reassurances are alarming” Peter Sandman


Do media always dramatize?• ”In a crisis ... even journalists abandon their

normal preference for hype and hysteria, and tend to over-reassure, as they did during the 2001 anthrax attacks”

• Three Mile Island crisis: ”As usual during an emergency (and only during an emergency) the media sat on the reassuring seat of the seesaw …mediacoverage was full of false reassurances. And false reassurances are alarming” Peter Sandman

| Oxford September 2007 | 22

When media is too reassuring

Bureau evening telegrame 26 December 2004 on the Tsunami:

- No Norwegians among the deads

–– Ingen nordmenn blant de omkomne

Ingen nordmenn blant de omkomneTil red: Utvidet sakTil red: Utvidet sakPublisert: 26.12.2004 Publisert: 26.12.2004 16:2216:22Oslo (NTBOslo (NTB--Peter TPeter Táálos): Ingen nordmenn skal ha omkommet eller blitt

los): Ingen nordmenn skal ha omkommet eller blitt

alvorlig skadd da kjempebalvorlig skadd da kjempebøølger flommet over

lger flommet over

79 Norwegians later proved to have drowned




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Information requirements in emergency situations, openness ... · Information requirements in emergency situations, openness in crisis and risk communication Knut I. Tønsberg, Senior