# 896
In a bit of a departure from normal, I'm turning by blog space over this afternoon to a good friend, and fellow flubie, known widely on the forums as Snicklefritz. He's written a guest blog that SophiaZoe and I are hosting, and hopefully it will find other venues as well.
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
by Snicklefritz
Questions have arisen as to the motivation behind the current ‘Pandemic Flu Leadership’ blog produced by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the recent ‘Pandemic Leadership Conference’ held on June 13th of this year. The root source of the questions seems to revolve around the stated purpose of each.
The stated purpose of the blog was “…to expand the conversation as part of an ongoing effort by the Department to help Americans become more prepared.” And, the stated purpose of the leadership conference was to bring “…together highly influential leaders from the business, faith, civic and health care sectors to discuss how best to help Americans become more prepared for a possible influenza pandemic.”
Although the stated purpose of both the blog and summit are equally lofty and are clearly stated, what is not clear is why, with such lofty goals, both were not adequately promoted in advance, or during the actual events. There was barely a whisper in the main stream media about either. This question becomes more enigmatic when the blog, at least, was conducted under the direction of a public relations firm.
The question becomes compounded when we ask, “Why do either - at all?” In November, 2005 the President proclaimed in an address at the National Institutes of Health a national response to the threat of pandemic influenza: “At this moment, there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or the world. But if history is our guide, there is reason to be concerned.”
This was followed by a 50 state tour by DHHS Secretary, Michael Leavitt, during which state and local leaders in public health and emergency management were advised to begin preparations for an influenza pandemic, and warned that the Federal Government would not be able to assist due to the shear magnitude of scope of such an event.
So, the deeper question is ‘Why, after the President brought the threat to national attention, and the Secretary of DHHS followed up with a 50 state tour promoting pandemic preparedness, was it necessary to produce the latest effort to bring attention to pandemic preparedness?”
The answer to this question seems abundantly clear. The President’s introduction to pandemic preparedness and the Secretary’s tour didn’t work. It simply did not capture the attention of the main stream media, and consequently, the American public. The mere fact that a public relations firm was hired to run the show during the recent blog suggests that DHHS recognized that the message was not getting through to the public. Whether this lack of attention is due to a failure of state and local officials to pick up the ball and carry it to the public, or because the message simply wasn’t compelling enough, are both arguable questions – and both are begging the real, current question which is, “Given the givens, what do we do now?”
In recent months the Republic of Indonesia has withheld virus samples as leverage to force the World Health Organization (WHO) to revamp its existing influenza vaccine program by claiming intellectual property rights to the virus samples. Whether that is a good idea, or a bad one is not at issue here. But, in the same week the US State Department announced the replacement of ambassadors to 5 of the countries that Indonesia caucused with to force these changes through. And, just yesterday, the WHO adopted new International Health Rules that, among other things, was designed to insure international transparency with regard to infectious diseases from member countries.
The point in all of this is that avian influenza has become a geo-political issue of great concern. The flu has been politicized. That being the case, is there a suggestion here for a way forward for promoting a national pandemic preparedness message? Yes, I believe there is: Make pandemic preparedness a national political campaign issue. Force the crop of presidential contenders, other elected officials running for re-elections, and political hopefuls to deal with this issue in the pubic domain. The main stream media cannot ignore this.
So, how do we do that? Take a lesson from Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign – use the internet. Specifically, each party has a campaign website, each containing a blog that is there for anyone’s use.
Although many of the contributing members of on-line flu forums have made notable efforts within their own communities, as far as the internet goes, and with exception for the recent DHHS blog, these ‘flubies’ can fairly be charged with ‘preaching to the choir’. If these same forum bloggers were to direct their passion to the respective political campaign headquarters they would garner a great deal more attention. Those who hope to make use of party funds in their election bids would have to address the issues of concern of the public at large, and also a small, but very vocal minority. For those ‘flubies’ who are frustrated to the point of using inflammatory rhetoric to get their message across, it would seem appropriate for all candidates to hear just how irate they really are. But, more importantly, volume also counts – numbers that appear on internal polls and blogs are given very close attention. The ‘flu community’ would have to ‘attack’ with a clear, unmistakable, and voluminous message that could not be ignored.
I believe the ‘flu community’ could yet have a profound impact on the direction the dialogue takes. But, they will have to breakdown the four walls of their forums and take their message to places where people are listening. I have included the web links for the respective party headquarters for convenience. The sites are listed in alphabetical order and they are open for business.
Democratic Campaign Headquarters
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/10/contact_your_el.php
Republican Campaign Headquarters
http://www.gop.com/
