Question 1

Which model, developed by the CDC, outlines five crisis phases and accompanying communication goals?

Accepted Answer

Developed by the CDC, the crisis and emergency risk model (CERC) outlines five crisis phases and accompanying communication goals. In the pre-crisis phase, partnerships with agencies, organizations, first responders, and the media are formed. During the initial event, aims include informing and reassuring the public, reducing uncertainty, and promoting self-efficacy. The maintenance phase involves helping the public more accurately understand the risk and what is being done. During the resolution phase, ongoing recovery efforts are shared. The evaluation phase includes evaluating response and communication effectiveness and identifying specific actions for improving.

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a component of the IDEA model?

Accepted Answer

The IDEA model has four main components. Internalization refers to the process whereby people process risk messages based on personal relevance, proximity to the risk, potential impact, and timeliness (e.g., the time available to make preparations or respond to a crisis). Distribution refers to channels for sharing information, such as television, radio, newspapers, the internet, and social media. Explanation reflects the quality of a message, its accuracy, the credibility of its source, and how easily it is understood by the public. Action involves the specific steps people might take in an emergency.

Question 3

How Zika was handled in the United States offers some important lessons for risk and crisis communicators. Which of the lessons below are among those learned during the Zika crisis?

Accepted Answer

The Zika crisis taught us three important lessons. First, health crises often persist after the news media have stopped reporting on them which means public health agencies are challenged with finding ways to keep the public informed about ongoing risks. Second, news media often fail to report health crises in accordance with guidelines and best practices. As such, health agencies cannot rely on news media alone to distribute accurate and complete crisis messages to the public. Social media, if used consistently, can help fill gaps in media coverage. Third, health agencies should maintain a consistent social media presence throughout public health crises.

Question 4

Public health officials in your area have recruited a wide range of professionals and community members to create awareness about the dangers of standing water in which mosquitoes can breed and spread disease. Their efforts are best described as:

Accepted Answer

Social mobilization involves large-scale efforts in which community members and professionals work interactively to define goals, raise awareness, and create hospitable environments for healthy behaviors. Social mobilization relies on teamwork, diversity, shared leadership, and active involvement.

Question 5

The management of the 2014 Ebola crisis in western Africa improved when:

Accepted Answer

A major turning point involved listening and empathic communication. Officials appealed to community chiefs, religious leaders, and healers for insight and help. These leaders, who were trusted within their communities, educated health professionals about local customs and began to reassure their fellow citizens that it was okay to forgo the traditional (and highly dangerous) burial rituals. Officials responsible for collecting bodies began explaining their reasons to family members, assuring them that their loved ones' burials would be "safe and dignified." They also began to pause once they had wrapped an infected body in protective plastic, to allow loved ones to gather around it at a safe distance for prayer and goodbyes. Whenever possible, the officials agreed to dress the deceased loved ones in garments chosen by the family and bury them with family keepsakes.

Question 6

Which are elements of risk communication?

Accepted Answer

Risk communication is an ongoing process that involves not just one message, but many diverse messages about risk factors as well as interactive discussions about how people perceive these factors, how they judge the risks, and how they feel about the risk messages themselves. Part of the challenge involves when and how to alert the public about health risks.

Question 7

Which of the following lessons for public health and crisis communication relates to the importance of maintaining the public's trust?

Accepted Answer

All three lessons relate to the importance of maintaining the public's trust.

Question 8

Communicating honestly and consistently in cases of public health and crisis communication involves providing the public with answers to three key questions. Which of the following is NOT one of those questions?

Accepted Answer

It's often impossible to predict when a crisis will end. Thus, "When will the crisis end?" is not one of the questions answered when providing the public with information.

Question 9

The purpose of a containment zone as proposed in guidelines for a flu pandemic is to:

Accepted Answer

Creating a geographic "containment zone" when the first cases surface separates people who have the disease, as well as those who have been exposed to it, from other people. This reduces further the risk of contagion and saves lives.

Question 10

According to the risk management/communication framework advanced by Ratzan and Meltzer, it is important to:

Accepted Answer

Experts recommend developing interactive and trusting relationships with stakeholders when things are calm. Another precaution is to collect information in advance that will be helpful, quick at hand, and tailored to different audiences because there is not always time in a crisis to construct and pretest new messages carefully.

Question 11

The term anti-vaxxers refers to:

Accepted Answer

Some parents, sometimes called anti-vaxxers, remain firm in their belief that vaccines cause autism.

Question 12

According to the book, when information and viewpoints about a public health crisis are inconsistent, it is important to:

Accepted Answer

Experts recommend coordinating with local health officials so that advice and information is consistent at every level whenever possible. When information is unavoidably inconsistent, acknowledge that and explain why.

Question 13

Which of the following statements best reflects Winslow's (1923) definition of public health?

Accepted Answer

Winslow defined public health as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health."

Question 14

Success in social mobilization efforts is facilitated by which of the following?

Accepted Answer

Social mobilization is understood to be large-scale efforts in which community members and professionals work interactively to define goals, raise awareness, and create hospitable environments for healthy behaviors. Social mobilization relies on teamwork, diversity, shared leadership, and active involvement.

Question 15

Imagine an HIV-prevention campaign created in North America for citizens of Namibia, Africa, urging them: "Be faithful to your spouse to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases." The problem with such a message is that:

Accepted Answer

These concepts are not meaningful to most Namibian citizens who are accustomed to polygamy and who tend to define marriage very loosely. Prevention campaigns do not always address polygamous sexual cultures and, instead, elevate the Christian idea of monogamous marriage. This is not the only or most common form of sexual union. As a result, many foreign efforts are culturally unacceptable and are therefore ineffective when it comes to changing people's behavior.

Question 16

Which of the following best describes the response of public health experts to the SARS outbreak of 2003?

Accepted Answer

Just 100 days into the crisis, spokespersons for WHO announced that the pandemic was under control and that new cases had dwindled to a handful a day. The crisis that began in February was largely over by July. The turnaround resulted partly from effective quarantines. Much of the success also involved communication. Because officials around the world reported cases promptly, WHO and other agencies were able to monitor and contain new outbreaks as much as possible. Communication technology allowed researchers and health experts to share data and new developments quickly and accurately. Because of this, they figured out how SARS was transmitted "in record time"

Question 17

Risk-management professionals involved in the mad cow disease scenario erred in what way(s)?

Accepted Answer

When people began falling ill after eating beef from cattle raised in Great Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, officials largely chose to downplay the risk and reassure people that British beef was safe to eat. The public gradually became skeptical, and even angry, about this claim. Risk communication professionals violated an important tenet of risk and crisis communication: Be open about what you know, even if you do not have all the answers. False reassurance can actually heighten fears and mistrust. Downplaying risks created a sense of distrust that discouraged people from believing what health officials said.

Question 18

Gaya Damhewage of the World Health Organization Department of Communication compares public health communication to a four-legged stool. Which of the following is NOT represented by a leg of the stool?

Accepted Answer

In Damhewage's model, the stool's legs represent: specialists in public health, social science, and communication who engage in ongoing, two-way communication with the public; media professionals with expertise in mass media, media relations, social media, and other means of reaching mass audiences; policy-makers engaged in leadership and resource management; and scientists who can provide data-based information and technical guidance. Celebrity advocates do not factor into Damhewage's model.

Question 19

Which of the following best describes Typhoid Mary?

Accepted Answer

Mary Mallon was a cook for wealthy families in New York. Authorities began to notice that, in the homes where she worked, an extraordinary number of people contracted typhoid fever. At the time, about 10% of people who got typhoid died from it. Tests showed that Mallon was a typhoid carrier, although she manifested no symptoms herself. She was forcibly quarantined in a hospital on an island in New York City's East River. Mallon was released after about six years. But when she disobeyed orders and returned to cooking professionally, she was taken into custody for the rest of her life.

Question 20

According to the book, which public health crisis reminds us that we should not overlook "forgotten publics" and that the language we use to describe health matters?

Accepted Answer

The opioid epidemic offers two important lessons. First, news coverage of the opioid epidemic has, to date, focused on White, middle-class "victims" while underreporting--and sometimes misreporting--African Americans' experiences. While we are not accountable for most of what appears in the news, it's important that we be sensitive to and (if necessary) correct messages that imply that the health and safety of some people are more important than those of other people. In this way, we do not overlook "forgotten publics." Second, the opioid epidemic teaches us that the words we use to describe conditions like addiction can lead to moralizing, blaming, and stigmatizing.

Quiz 12: Public Health and Crisis Communication