Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: Lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management

By Richard D. Smith. Social Science & Medicine (1967), 2006

742 citations recorded by the source corpus.

With increased globalisation comes the likelihood that infectious disease appearing in one country will spread rapidly to another, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) being a recent example. However, although SARS infected some 10,000 individuals, killing around 1000, it did not lead to the devastating health impact that many feared, but a rather disproportionate economic impact. The disproportionate scale and nature of this impact has caused concern that outbreaks of more serious disease could cause catastrophic impacts on the global economy. Understanding factors that led to the impact of SARS might help to deal with the possible impact and management of such other infectious disease outbreaks. In this respect, the role of risk—its perception, communication and management—is critical. This paper looks at the role that risk, and especially the perception of risk, its communication and management, played in driving the economic impact of SARS. It considers the public and public health response to SARS, the role of the media and official organisations, and proposes policy and research priorities for establishing a system to better deal with the next global infectious disease outbreak. It is concluded that the potential for the rapid spread of infectious disease is not necessarily a greater threat than it has always been, but the effect that an outbreak can have on the economy is, which requires further research and policy development.

Subfields: Modeling and Simulation, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/16eb1091925c3bb1ad572d8e2e17a47506426696

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Citations in the corpus

Race and ethnicity, gender, and age on perceived threats and fear of COVID-19: Evidence from two national data sources (2020, positive): “Studies find perceived risk (subjective), rather than actual risk (objective), often determine how populations respond to preventative practices during infectious disease outbreaks (Sjoberg, 2000; Smith, 2006; Weinstein, 1988).”
Did the S.A.R.S. epidemic weaken the integration of Asian stock markets? Evidence from smooth time-varying cointegration analysis (2018, background): “infectious disease appearing in one country will spread rapidly to another, and outbreaks of more serious diseases could cause catastrophic impacts on the global economy (Smith, 2006).”
Exploring the Effects of COVID-19 Containment Policies on Crime: An Empirical Analysis of the Short-term Aftermath in Los Angeles (2020, background): “Smith (2006), instead, proposed to re-evaluate the importance of risk perception and communication as a strong instrument to reduce the negative effects of future epidemic and pandemic outbreaks, relying on the scrutiny of the processes related to SARS.”
Searching for safe-haven assets during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020, neutral): “In 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known as SARS, was estimated to cost the world between $30–100 billion (Smith, 2006).”
Financial markets under the global pandemic of COVID-19 (2020, neutral): “Back to 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was estimated to cost the world between 30–100 billion USD (Smith, 2006).”
Sentiments and emotions evoked by news headlines of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak (2020, background): “Further, the role of media in the coverage of SARS was often found inaccurate, excessive, and sensationalist (Smith, 2006), which is still the biggest challenge at present.”
The SARS, MERS and novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemics, the newest and biggest global health threats: what lessons have we learned? (2020, background): “The lack of transparency of the Chinese health ministry has been cited as one of the largest contributors to the spread of the virus globally.(4) At the end of the epidemic, China reported >8,000 cases of the disease and 774 deaths, and a case-fatality rate of 7%.”
Has financial attitude impacted the trading activity of retail investors during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2020, background): “To estimate the nearly unfathomable commercial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must first consider that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, which was confined mainly to a single country (i.e., China), cost the global economy between 30 to 100 billion USD (Smith, 2006).”
Seeing the invisible hand: Underlying effects of COVID-19 on tourists’ behavioral patterns (2020, positive): “According to Smith (2006), people’s health concerns about SARS went beyond reality: the perceived uncertainty of infection and negative outcomes, coupled with person-to-person transmission and ambiguity over SARS identification and control, collectively contributed to public panic.”
COVID-19 Fear in Eastern Europe: Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (2020, background): “Understanding and mitigating human fear including that linked to physical and mental health is a major concern and focal point for intervention (Smith 2006).”
The COVID-19 Outbreak and Affected Countries Stock Markets Response (2020, background): “The WHO and public health officials performed the role of mediator to communicate the risk of an outbreak to the investors and it shapes the investors’ sentiments towards the disease [4].”
Single cell RNA sequencing of 13 human tissues identify cell types and receptors of human coronaviruses (2020, background): “Most of the coronaviruses are associated with mild clinical symptoms, except SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, showing fatality rate of 9.6% and 34%, respectively [25, 26] .”
Does the size of the tourism sector influence the economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic? (2021, background): “…communications, including the public relations and marketing initiatives carried out by national tourist authorities, destination marketing organizations, and private-sector stakeholders (Beirman, 2006; Frisby, 2003; Mair et al., 2016; Novelli et al., 2018; Smith, 2006; Speakman & Sharpley, 2012).”
Economies of contagion: financial crisis and pandemic (2013, background): “7 Smith (2006) considers the role played by risk and particularly the perception of risk in the economic fallout from Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.”
Cross‐species transmission of the newly identified coronavirus 2019‐nCoV (2020, background): “6% mortality rate.(26) More importantly, results from our analysis reveal a homologous recombination may occurred between the bat coronavirus and an origin‐unknown coronavirus within the viral spike glycoprotein gene.”