Institutions, public agencies and authorities can tackle different kinds of crisis by using social media. In the last few months, this has been done successfully in very diverse cases, both defending the reputation of a big oil company from a journalistic inquiry, and managing the response to a terror attack within a city. Even if the type and range of crisis is hugely different, the efficacy of a prompt and wise use of social network gives clues that could be useful when dealing with infectious threats as well.
Recognize and respect fear. This is one of the main lessons Ron Klain claims to have learned by his efforts against Ebola. Klain has recently served as the first White House Ebola Response Coordinator, also known as the Ebola Czar. From such a high position, he got a close and deep insight into the dramatic threat to global health represented by the West Africa outbreak.
