The problem outlined in the article “Risk Communication, The West Nile Virus Epidemic. . .” is successfully communicating the risk of disease outbreak and how that problem would be best handled. The article here focuses on managing an outbreak of West Nile Virus in New York City and how the successful communication of this risk is an integral component of handling the problem, so the audience in this example would be the citizens of New York City. The City of New York started out with three goals: first to inform the public about the disease, to increase public involvement in eliminating mosquito breeding sites, and also to effectively communicate to the public when and where insecticide sprayings would be taking place (Covello p.9). They went about this by using TV, a web site, print ads in many languages, press releases, as well as a 24 hour phone line.
There was no problem constructing authority either as the two people who the public saw speaking about the subject most were the NYC health commissioner and their mayor. However the city did fail to do everything in the best manner possible. Some of the materials they issued created too much worry in the public eye, were above the intended audience’s level of understanding, and they failed to show concern about the environment when spraying pesticides. (p.10)
Even with these downfalls, the city did an adequate job of communicating the risks to the public and the threat eventually receded. Citizens of New York City were not forced to evacuate (p.11) Other cities can now look at the unfortunate situation the City of New York was put in almost ten years ago now and can learn from their successes and also improve on their missteps to better handle future disease outbreaks should they ever occur.
