Public Health Emergency Risk Communication and Social Media Reactions to an Errant Warning of a Ballistic Missile Threat in Hawaii — United States, January 2018
- Our results suggest that public health agencies should acknowledge and address emotional reactions to perceived threats in a timely fashion during each phase of an unfolding crisis to help protect and save lives.
- Our findings emphasize the need to account for how people interpret, share, and react to public health messaging, in order to ensure that the right message is sent at the right time.
- Our results show that social media is used to verify information in near-real time, and that public health agencies can harness social media to convey timely messaging.
“Social media is a powerful tool to spread information. Our findings highlight the importance of accurate public health messaging that is timely and credible to help save lives during an unfolding crisis.”
-Bhavini Murthy, MD, MPH, EIS Class of 2016
[PNG - 2 MB]Bhavini Murthy, MD, MPH, EIS Class of 2016 (far right), confers with colleagues Nancy Chow (molecular microbiologist), Juliana Da Silva (EIS 2016), Jonathan Strysko (EIS 2017), Audrey Pennington (EIS 2017), and Kimberly Skrobarcek (EIS 2016) while in the field.
CDC Media Relations
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Bhavini Murthy, MD, MPH, EIS Class of 2016
CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response
Education: MD: University of Texas, Southwest Medical Center, Dallas, 2013; MPH: Harvard University, 2012; BS: Texas A&M University, College Station, 2008
Work Experience: Resident (Preventative medicine (General/PH)): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 2014-Present; Intern (Internal medicine): Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2013-2014; Work Experince: Medicine Residency, Durham County Health Departmentt (Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Tuberculosis Clinic), Durham, NC, 2015-Present; Teaching Assistant, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, 2014-2015; Intern, American College of Preventative Medicine (ACPM), Washington, DC, 2014-2014; Medical Resident, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, NC, 2014-2014; Research Assistant, Department of Biochemistry/Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX