The Next Big Health Crisis – and How to Cover It

Schedule

Thursday, November 30, 2006

5 p.m.
Registration and reception

6 p.m.
Kickoff dinner at Lippmann House

  • Bob Giles, Curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
    Welcome

  • Stephen Prior, Executive Director, National Center for Critical Incident Analysis
    Why This Conference?

7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Understanding the Threat, Journalism Focus
Why cover a pandemic that has yet to arrive?
Why prepare the newsroom for crisis?

  • Michael Osterholm: Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and a member of the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity
    Wake up; it's already tomorrow

  • Brian Toolan: National Editor, The Associated Press
    Prepared, cautious and wary

  • Al Larkin: Executive Vice President, The Boston Globe
    Publishing or perishing: Crisis planning for newspapers

  • Stan Tiner: Editor, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)
    Learning from Katrina: Plan, plan, plan

  • Moderator – Christy Feig: Senior Medical Producer, CNN


Friday, December 1, 2006

8 a.m.
Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.
Understanding the Threat, Science Focus
The devil in the detail: Why viruses are hard to study, harder to understand and even harder to defeat

 

  • Michael Osterholm: Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and a member of the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity
    Understanding influenza: From the virus to the pandemic

  • Marc Lipsitch: Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health
    Questions to ask when covering the next infectious-disease crisis

  • Discussion – Angus Nicoll: Project Leader for Influenza, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden (joining by phone from Austria)

  • Moderator – Stefanie Friedhoff: Conference Program Director, Nieman Foundation for Journalism

10:45 a.m.
Break

11 a.m.
Understanding the Threat, Analysis
Risk perception, risk communication and risk reporting: The role of each in pandemic preparedness

  • Peter Sandman: Risk Communicator, Princeton

Noon
Facing the Threat: The Global Picture
Crowded cities, international travel, sudden outbreaks: Containing fast-spreading infectious diseases in a global world

  • David Nabarro: United Nations System Senior Coordinator for Avian Flu and Human Influenza

1 p.m.
Lunch

2 p.m.
Facing the Threat: The National Picture
Lots of preparation, little coordination? How the United States plans to respond to pandemic flu (off the record)

  • Alfonso Martinez-Fonts Jr.: Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector Office, Department of Homeland Security
    Understanding the Federal Response Plan

  • Major General Timothy J. Lowenberg: Adjutant General, Washington National Guard
    Bringing in the troops

  • Tim Stephens: Senior Public Health Consultant, Rescobie Associates
    Protecting critical infrastructure

  • Chris Logan: Program Director for Homeland Security, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
    50 states, 50 scenarios

  • Don Ainslie: Principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Global Security Officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
    No one is going to lead the way

  • Moderator – Barb Monseu: President, National Center for Critical Incident Analysis

4 p.m.
Break

4:15 p.m.
Facing the Threat, The Local Picture
In the end, it will be a local story: Coordinating community efforts (off the record)

  • John Thompson: Deputy Executive Director, National Sheriffs Association
    Enforcing quarantine, transporting the ill, grounding travelers: Training police forces to provide community disease control

  • Betty Kirby: Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Administration and Community Leadership, Central Michigan University
    Beyond teaching "Cough and Cover": Getting schools ready for a pandemic; using educators as a resource

  • Michael Loehr: Preparedness Section Manager, Public Health — Seattle & King County (Washington state)
    Preparing for the next public health catastrophe: Convincing the public that community containment is a "good thing"

  • Moderator – Patricia Thomas: Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia

5:30 p.m.
Adjourn

7 p.m.
Dinner


Saturday, December 2, 2006

8 a.m.
Continental breakfast

8:30 a.m.
Understanding Human Responses, Science Focus
From public trust to panic: What we know — and don't — about people's reactions to mass illness, chaos and death

 

  • Dori Reissman: Commander, United States Public Health Service, and Senior Medical Advisor, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC)
    What behavioral and social sciences can tell us about human behavior in a pandemic

  • Sandro Galea: Associate Professor, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan
    A model of human behavior after disasters: Evidence from a systematic study of disasters during the past 50 years

  • Moderator – Frank Ochberg: Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct of Journalism, Michigan State University

9:30 a.m.
Break

9:45 a.m.
Understanding Human Response, Communications Focus
From uncertain science to political messages: What we know — and don't — about how disaster communication affects the public

  • Howard Koh, Professor of the Practice of Public Health and Director, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Harvard School of Public Health
    Sudden limelight: Living through bioterrorism as a state health commissioner

  • Dick Thompson, Team Leader, WHO Pandemic and Outbreak Communication
    The toughest audience

  • Peter Sandman, Risk Communicator
    Fear of fear and panic panic: Is it okay to scare people about pandemics?

  • Glen Nowak, Chief of Media Relations, Centers for Disease Control
    It's not as easy as it sounds: The challenges of risk communication in real life, real time

  • Moderator – Tini Tran: Vietnam Bureau Chief, The Associated Press, 2007 Nieman Fellow

11:15 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m.
Understanding Human Responses, Journalism Focus
From communication to journalism: The role of the news media in times of crisis

  • Patricia Thomas: Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia
    What anthrax teaches in a changed world

  • Ford Rowan: Author and former NBC News National Security Correspondent
    Impact of the media: Lessons from three crises

  • Moderator – Bruce Shapiro: Executive Director, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and Contributing Editor, The Nation

12:30 p.m.
Lunch

1 p.m.
Accepting the Challenge, Journalism Focus I
From contingency plans to story boards: How to prepare reporters and newsrooms for a major health crisis

  • Margie Mason: Asia Medical Writer (Hanoi), The Associated Press
    On the ground, covering the unknown one step at a time

  • Maggie Fox: Editor in Charge, Health and Science, Reuters
    Taking it global: Covering bird flu on the spot and from half a world away

  • Christy Feig: Senior Medical Producer, CNN
    The TV reporter's dilemma: When getting quotes over the phone won't do

  • David Meeks: City Desk Editor, The Times Picayune (New Orleans)
    Our own kind of quarantine: Coverage after evacuating the newsroom

  • Moderator – Stefanie Friedhoff: Conference Program Director, Nieman Foundation

2:30 p.m. Break

2:45 p.m.
Accepting the Challenge, Journalism Focus II
Connecting the dots: How to cover a health story that is also an economic, a political, a science, a global — and a competitive — story

  • Alan Sipress: Staff Writer, The Washington Post
    A Westerner in Asia: How to get beyond the obvious

  • Lu Yi: Senior Reporter, Sanlian Life Weekly
    Insights from Beijing: Reporting SARS and avian flu for China's largest newsweekly

  • Harro Albrecht: Medical Editor, Die Zeit (Germany), and 2007 Nieman Fellow
    The Euro perspective: Once infected birds hit Germany, the story was never the same again

  • Helen Branswell: Medical Reporter, Canadian Press
    How to cover an international story working the phone

  • Maryn McKenna: Freelance Journalist and Kaiser Media Fellow
    Coming to terms with complexity: Stretching beyond your beat knowledge

  • John Pope: Medical Writer, The Times Picayune (New Orleans)
    Living to tell: What hurricane Katrina can teach us about covering a pandemic

  • Moderator – Maryn McKenna

4:45 p.m.
Closing Remarks

5 p.m.
Wine and Cheese Reception at Lippmann House