A gripe afecta a voz (das empresas)?

Pus no linkedin a seguinte pergunta sobre a pandemia em curso:

A gripe suína, ou como a quiserem chamar, é também um problema (e uma oportunidade) de comunicação. Estarão o governo, instituições e empresas preparados para actuar nessa frente?

Jeremy Probert respondeu assim:

Swine 'flu - or the Aporkalypse, as some wag had it - is taking over our lives and dominating the media. Despite the fact that a) it is inevitable b) it is inevitable that a certain number of people will die and c) (in the UK) in a normal year 22,000 people die from 'flu anyway, and the media hardly breaks sweat.

In terms of communication - internal comms functions have been gearing up since it began (certainly those of my clients and the companies/organisations that I am exposed to) and there appears to be a state of readiness (although no-one will be quite sure exactly when to activate their plans - now might be good).

Again, my clients and the companies/organisations that I am familiar with all have (fairly) workable Business Continuity Plans already. Doesn't matter what triggers the plan - terrorism or swine 'flu - the way the plan works is the same.

The UK government isn't doing a bad job - in the face of mounting hysteria -but it will always be back-footed when it makes announcements about vaccine availability and vaccination programmes, which will only fuel the hysteria. Or rather, these announcements will be used by the media (Daily Mail, you know who you are) to fuel the hysteria.

Where I think there might be a comms issue looming is for the various industry sectors that rely on pigs for their survival. People are still, as far as I am aware, eating pork - and it's been made clear that there is no link between swine 'flu and pork products - but as the hysteria mounts, as it inevitably will, as the death toll rises, who knows how the the general public will react and what they will do to vent their frustrations?

In brief - this isn't really a comms issue, it's a societal one.

"Aporkalypse", já agora, é óptimo.