All politicians and senior government officials should take note of what has happened in China. China has an authoritarian government that seeks to censor any dissension from its citizens and actively pursues those that speak out. In the podcast, you will hear average Chinese people speaking out about the slow response to the coronavirus and also speaking against their government.
While here in the United States, we feel free to speak our minds, to post what we want on Facebook and even march in the streets, the above activity in China is very unusual. They are angry and don't believe that the government has done what is necessary to combat a new virus.
How this translates to North America is the lesson that governments everywhere, especially those at the local level, which is where public health functions need to be attuned to providing as much information as possible and being very proactive in addressing a disease outbreak.
You cannot overcommunicate! Don't feel like you don't have anything new to say, keep saying the same thing you have been saying. Say it in a different way. Not everyone is listening at the same time — thus, there will be new listeners. Unfortunately, there are not as many readers as there were in the past, so newspapers are no longer a go-to way to communicate. In today's world. you need your own social media channels.
There is nothing wrong with saying what it is that you "don't know." Better to create uncertainty in the population than to build overconfidence in your ability to counter the disease or another disaster.
