They could instill confidence quite simply by issuing the following statement:
"As President Obama has declared this to be a national security emergency, by executive order $10 billion of the DoD budget has been reallocated to contain the contagion. $5 billion will go to Eiken Chemical Co. for emergency mass production of its 30-minute Ebola test device <http://www.ibtimes.com/ebola-outbreak-japan-develops-30-minute-simpler-test-quickly-diagnose-deadly-virus-1675502> for distribution to all US clinics and airports and $5 billion will go to procure biohazard suits for all emergency room personnel, including R95 respirators. All persons exhibiting flu symptoms will be asked to remain in their homes until samples can be drawn and tested for Ebola. In the interim all passing through customs from afflicted countries will be required to provide a blood sample which will be kept in storage until it can be tested." On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 11:08 PM, Eric Walker <eric.wal...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > >> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html >> > > There was this relevant detail in an NYT story about the man with Ebola > who flew into Dallas: > > Officials said Wednesday that they believed Mr. Duncan came into contact >> with 12 to 18 people when he was experiencing active symptoms and when the >> disease was contagious, and that the daily monitoring of those people had >> not yet shown them to be infected. > > > I get that public health experts don't want to cause a panic by leaving > room for doubt on the handling of the situation. But I think they've gone > a little too far in the opposite direction and have given assurances in the > face of something that brings some unknowns with it. Expressions of > confidence when people can sense this is something that is kind of new can > have the effect of undermining rather than bolstering trust in the handling > of the situation. Such overconfidence seems to be common before financial > crises, for example, and people are attuned to this dynamic. > > Eric > >
