Ebola Response & Preparedness
Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) would like to share the following tips and attached resources for preparing a communications strategy for dealing with media interest in Ebola cases in the U.S.:
Go ahead and do an Ebola Drill - get everybody around a table and plan for what might happen.
Go ahead and do an Ebola Drill - get everybody around a table and plan for what might happen.Use CDC and KDHE; save yourself, use the resources in this toolkit for an Ebola communication response and familiarize yourself with the information available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html and www.kdheks.gov/ebola.
Connect with your local community, media, health departments, etc. KDHE has begun hosting a weekly call with key partners across the state. Don¡¦t be afraid to localize these strategies by gathering your local and regional partners.
Start now with identifying some potential depth to your PIO team. Pull in a large PIO team, and draw from other agencies, if possible, to handle enormous workload of watching social media, responding to interview requests, arranging spokespeople, coordinating with others, etc.
Rumor control - It's very difficult to monitor the media and what's being said on social networks, but do your best. This is also a great area to enlist the help of your community partners, especially if the use a media monitoring program.
If you do have a confirmed case of Ebola in your community, change your voice mail to say you're in the midst of the Ebola response. Ask people to leave a message and say you will get back to them as timely as possible. You may also want to include general resources on Ebola in your voicemail such as a web address or email contact.
Decide on stance for interviews and be consistent with that decision.
Develop separate list of reporters interested in Ebola and make sure they're constantly up-to-date.
PIOs can contact the KDHE Office of Communications at communications@kdheks.gov.
Health care facilities, clinics and physicians can contact response2014@kdheks.gov for questions about the response plan and guidance.
