Broadcasting Flu Messages -- Citywide Transmission and Community Reception: An Evaluation of Ready New York's Pandemic Influence Outreach Campaign   [open html - 16KB]

From the Executive Summary: "Public health risk communication is a central feature of New York City's pandemic flu preparedness plan. Particularly in the early stages of a pandemic, before effective therapeutic measures are available, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, personal protective hygiene, and voluntary isolation are critical strategies for suppressing the spread of a novel viral strain. New York City health and emergency management officials have decided to use the city's risk communication structure - the Office of Emergency Management's Ready New York outreach and dissemination capacities - as one of the primary means to communicate pandemic flu health messages. In October 2008, NCDP [National Center for Disaster Preparedness] contracted with Public Health Solutions and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to evaluate the reach and effectiveness of its planned Ready NY [New York] Pandemic Flu community outreach campaign."