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What precautions are you taking against swine flu?

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LISA MULLINS: There are many other questions people have about the swine flu -- and not just in Mexico. To help answer some of those questions, we called Peter Sandman. He's a risk communication consultant based in Princeton, New Jersey. Sandman's an expert on how to communicate with the public about emergencies. So we asked him how he thinks the US response to the outbreak is going.

PETER SANDMAN: It's doing some things extremely well and some things quite badly. I'm very impressed with how candid the CDC and others in the US government are being about how dangerous the situation might be. I'm impressed with how candid they're being about how uncertain the situation is. Here's what they're doing badly: they are not making any effort to involve the American public. It's as if, you know, they're telling us this is very serious, we are responding aggressively, you don't have to. You know, watch while we protect you. And that's bad in a bunch of ways. It's bad logistically because we need people to be taking precautions: to stockpile food, to stockpile medications, to get a full tank of gas. Get some more cash in your wallet so if the ATMs stop working you're still okay. These are things that would make people tune in who have so far tuned out.

MULLINS: Peter, when you're talking about things like getting ATM cash, you know, stocking up on water, or tuna fish, medical supplies, etcetera that all sounds rather apocalyptic and, you know, the aftermath of either a terrorist attack or some kind of cataclysmic natural disaster. Isn't that an overreaction? I mean, why would you have to get money out of your ATM machine if you're really just trying to prevent yourself and other people from getting the swine flu?

SANDMAN: It all depends what's going to happen over the next couple of days and weeks. I mean, it now looks like a pandemic is likely. It's not clear that it's imminent but it could very well be imminent. And we haven't a clue whether it's going to be serious or how serious it's going to be. If there are, you know, millions of people dying obviously that is cataclysmic. But suppose there aren't millions of people dying. Suppose there are only millions of people feeling crappy; you know, not going to work and not going about their normal business because they're not well. You know, it's not a cataclysm. But it's still true that if there's a pandemic and it sickens large numbers of people at the same time the supply lines are going to be disrupted, markets may or may not be open, that's not catastrophic but it is disruptive. Being ready for that doesn't mean it's going to happen. It means if it does you're not up a creek without a paddle.

MULLINS: Let me introduce here Christine Gorman who is a long time health and medical journalist. She wrote for Time Magazine, she blogs about global health. Christine can you compare this reaction to this threat, the reaction of the United States government to the way Mexico's government has responded?

CHRISTINE GORMAN: Well, Mexico has told people not to eat out in restaurants. They're clearly trying to get social distancing so that there aren't large groups of people. They are at a more advanced stage than we are with the exception of Vice President Biden saying that he wouldn't get on a plane and he's told his family members not to get on a plane or train.

MULLINS: Basically because of the way the air is circulated, he says if somebody has it then we're all gonna be breathing that air. I mean, is that an overreaction?

GORMAN: I think that is an overreaction, I mean, I wish he had said, you know; if you're sick don't get on a plane. As opposed to telling all healthy people not to get on a plane.

MULLINS: Well, right now do people know? I mean, there is an incubation period, will people always know if they're sick and if they're sick whether it's the swine flu?

GORMAN: The incubation period is about 24 hours as far as we know asymptomatic, without symptoms, and then maybe another seven days if you have symptoms. Most people know when they have flu, and so if you're sick stay home, that's the first message that we're getting from US government and health officials. In some respects it's actually not what's happening in the US and Mexico that is concerning, it's what's happening in Britain and Europe. There seems to be much more of a very funny kind of wanting to downplay even when you hear Margret Chan talking about going to pandemic level five.

MULLINS: This is the WHO director, Director General Margret Chan.

GORMAN: Right, so when Director General Margret Chan, Director General of the WHO talks about going to level five she both is telling everybody to, you know, come together and yet at the same time she's sort of downplaying it. And it's this funny kind of message that in England and in some other places people are definitely not taking the threats seriously enough because there haven't been a lot of deaths outside of Mexico.

MULLINS: Once again we're speaking with health journalist Christine Gorman and risk communication consultant Peter Sandman. Our conversation with them about swine flu continues after we take a quick break.

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