H1N1 -- the social costs of élite confusion

In May 2011, the World Health Assembly will receive the report of its International Health Regulations Review Committee examining responses to the outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza and identifying lessons to be learnt. This will emphasise the need for better risk communication in future. But risk and communication are not objective facts; they are socially mediated cultural products. Responses to crises are not only simply determined by the situation at hand, but also through mental models developed over protracted periods. Accordingly, those responsible for advocating the precautionary approach and encouraging the securitisation of health, that both helped encourage a catastrophist outlook in this instance, are unlikely to be held to account. These élite confusions have come at an enormous cost to society.