Editor's note: Brian C. Castrucci is an epidemiologist, public health worker, and president and CEO of the De Beaumont Foundation. Frank Luntz is a Republican pollster and communications advisor. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. Read more opinion pieces on CNN.
CNN —
Again, our country is monitoring potential public health threats. And if recent history is any indication, many Americans won't pay attention until people start dying. And those who are paying attention already have many questions about what to do and how worried they should be.
de Beaumont Foundation
Brian C. Castrucci
Provided by: Frank Lantz
Frank Lantz
The H5N1 avian influenza virus strain has infected wild birds, poultry, and livestock around the world, and traces of apparently harmless inactive virus have been detected in some samples of the U.S. milk supply. Let me emphasize that this is not a major threat to humanity at this time. But we cannot let our guard down and must effectively communicate what we know.
You might think we've learned from the mistakes we made during the COVID-19 pandemic and not made them again, but that would be wishful thinking.
The U.S. government invested $18 billion in developing the COVID-19 vaccine that has saved so many lives. With this level of financial support, the science, manufacturing, and availability proved to be the easy parts; getting people to take the vaccine was much harder. The public encountered confusion and conflicting information, and a lot of unnecessary jargon that obscured both the threat and the solution.
Communication around H5N1 is already off to a rocky start.
Announcements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. On May 1, the USDA said the virus was mutating relatively quickly. The next day, CDC scientists told STAT that the mutation did not raise immediate concerns about potential risks to humans.
Six days later, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf acknowledged that the odds of humans contracting the virus were low, but said the federal government was preparing for bird flu to transfer to humans. Further confusing the conversation is that many epidemiologists and doctors are competing for media attention, predicting different outcomes and scenarios.
Communication in uncertain situations is difficult. No one knows what this virus will do next. The federal government must adjust its messaging, use plain language that people understand, promote reliable information sources, and prepare local community leaders to speak out thoughtfully about this potential threat.
It is no exaggeration to say that during a national health emergency, polarization and division can cost lives. Through focus groups and national polling conducted at the de Beaumont Foundation, we know that Americans remain divided in their perceptions of COVID-19. But we have identified something that unites the country. It's both obvious and useful. No one wants to get sick, no one wants to die, and everyone wants their families to be safe. The people are clear about this. Politicians should not prioritize personal ideology or partisan politics over public safety.
As we discuss the possibility of another pandemic, there are several things we can do to increase our preparedness and efforts to keep people safe.
First, we need a bipartisan plan to address the huge threat of false and misleading information. We need new strategies to provide the public with accurate, jargon-free, and timely information from scientists, political leaders of all parties, and business and religious leaders. And these strategies must effectively combat misinformation and rumors. We need to build a network of diverse spokespeople now who can reach out to a similarly diverse America. And health professionals need training to communicate more effectively, especially during times of uncertainty.
Second, improving indoor air quality must become a national priority. The experience with Covid-19 has shown us that improving ventilation and filtration is critical to reducing transmission and slowing community transmission. Like Covid-19, the H5N1 virus can also spread through the air we breathe. But more than four years after the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic began, progress toward improving indoor air quality has been slow.
Just as the federal government built thousands of miles of roads after the Great Depression, we need similar bipartisan leadership and funding from the federal government to make improving indoor air quality a national priority. Efforts are necessary. Let's start with schools, businesses, and food manufacturing plants that are important to society. continued operation of the nation; At the state and local level, updated building codes with commensurate enforcement can set new standards for air quality that can directly impact health.
Nothing is more important to our long-term health and safety than the air we breathe. This is not a partisan issue, it is an American issue, and it requires coordinated, collective, and bipartisan action. Improving indoor air quality could reduce indoor viral transmission during future pandemics, reducing the need for school and business closures and mask mandates that have become all too familiar during COVID-19. Or it could be avoided.
Third, ensuring the rest of us have what we need when we need it: restaurant staff, childcare workers, grocery store workers, truck drivers, and now dairy workers. We need to enact protections for the groups of essential workers that are available. they. We may call them “essential,” but many of these workers work low-wage jobs without paid sick leave or health insurance benefits, and some are Some people may be working illegally.
Dairy worker reporting of influenza-like illness is an important step in our prevention efforts. How can we expect if we report it, when we might not work, not get paid, not feed our children, not pay rent, or face deportation? The USDA is securing compensation for dairy farms that have lost milk production due to the virus, but it is also doing more for the people working on the farms than just providing personal protective equipment (PPE). I wonder if there is one?
Policies that can protect these workers and their families include emergency paid sick leave, federal income guarantees for those who report sick, and immediate access to health insurance. It will make the country safer and it's the right thing to do.
Even if we act on these three priorities, in many important respects we will be even less prepared for a pandemic than we were in 2020.
According to de Beaumont, state and local public health workers are not overstretched and are understaffed by at least 80,000 people. Further staffing shortages are likely following the significant turnover of public health workers nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to KFF, childhood vaccination rates have fallen during the pandemic as confidence in vaccine safety has declined significantly, reaching a 10-year low as of 2023 with the highest childhood vaccine exemption rates in the United States in history as of 2023, according to the CDC.
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Americans have low trust in the institutions we rely on to investigate, contain, and defeat disease outbreaks. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, only 16% of Americans said they trust the federal government all or most of the time. And a 2023 study published in the journal Health Affairs showed that as many as a quarter of Americans do not trust the CDC's health recommendations.
Health and science have become so politicized and polarized that many Americans have lost faith and confidence in their own scientists and medical professionals, even though they remain the envy of the world. I am.
This is a troubling disconnect. In particular, like the rest of us, we believe that front-line public health workers are dedicated professionals who have done heroic work to save lives and protect health during a devastating pandemic. Even more so in this case.
Bird flu may not become the next national public health emergency, but we cannot sit back and wait for the answers. The best-case scenario is that we are well prepared and do not end up in a deadly national crisis. This is a goal that should be embraced across all political ideologies and party lines. If our nation can come together on the principle that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, we will be ready for the next threat, no matter when or what happens. .
