In 2010, Glen Nowak, Ph.D., as then Acting Director of Media Relations for the CDC and Communications Director for the National Immunization Program (NIP), produced a guide to how to create public panic to encourage people to get vaccinated against the flu. It reads like a blueprint for the German Federal Ministry of the Interior’s corona panic communication.
The psychological operation includes the plan to use the media as a “weapon” and to present scenes from hospitals and descriptions of painful medical histories in a targeted manner to scare the public. The health warnings are to be similar to warnings of possible terrorist attacks, with great emphasis and emphasis on generating fear.
Nowak writes: “Good (i.e. effective) communication is a necessary, but usually only partially sufficient condition for achieving desired behavior. Facts, figures and statistics are not in themselves synonymous with good communication (and no more information is equally good communication).
The flu affects 2 million Americans every year. Complications of the flu kill up to 200,000 people each year – more deaths than breast cancer, car accidents and AIDS combined. (Editor’s note: By December 4, 2020, approximately 276,000 people in the United States are believed to have died in connection with corona).
In order to encourage people to get vaccinated against the flu, Nowak suggests that medical experts and health authorities publicly (e.g. via the media) express great concern, make massive references to the terrible consequences of the flu and urgently recommend flu vaccinations. The flu season should, Nowak suggests, be “framed” with terms that motivate behavior, e.g. as very difficult, more severe than last year or last year, even fatal.
Ongoing reports (e.g. from health authorities and the media) that the flu is causing serious illnesses and/or affecting many people, Nowak says, help to promote the perception that the flu can take a severe course in very many people. The reports are to be accompanied by visible and tangible examples of the severity of the disease (e.g. pictures of children, families of those affected who come forward) and people who are vaccinated (the former to motivate, the latter to reinforce). The reports on flu incidents should always be accompanied by an indication of the importance of vaccinations.
Nowak complains that it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach people via the mass media: Most people would have 10 or more options when it comes to television. Hundreds of websites offer medical and health information. The readership of daily newspapers has declined, especially among 18-49 year-olds. Cultural and ethnic diversity is greater than ever. Health literacy, he remarked, is a growing problem. In view of the fact that communication research assumes that you have to reach people 10-12 times with a message in order for it to be understood, Nowak advises that messages should be conveyed in a less nuanced way, i.e. that the dangers should be overemphasized rather than conveying a differentiated and possibly confusing, ambivalent image.
