GovDelivery has had a lot of inquiries from citizens and media this week asking for our recommendations on how the public can stay informed during this critical time. We are not public health experts, but our work with key health agencies gives us some perspective on resources available to the public.
We are all being bombarded with information on the H1N1 flu virus this week. Official government information is invaluable when there is so much misinformation coming at us from all sides.
GovDelivery works with 300+ public sector entities in the U.S. and U.K. The majority of federal health agencies (CDC, HHS.gov, Pandemicflu.gov, NIH, Medicare, & others) use our Email & Digital Subscription platform to manage outbound digital communication, and we work with state and local health agencies and departments in 30 states including the MN, TX, NE, and OR Health Departments, among others.
I'm not trying to provide a full commercial here, but rather establish how we are in a good position to see what citizens are interested in and what tools are available (particularly online) for citizens that want and need to stay informed of official information.
Some quick statistics on the activity we've seen in terms of citizen interest and government communication in the past week is truly unprecedented.
- Over 150,000 citizens have signed up to receive H1N1 flu updates from federal and state public health agencies, cities, and counties (these same organizations already have millions of citizens signed up through our platform, but this 1 week jump is the highest ever).
- Government agencies have sent over 250 distinct messages through GovDelivery to more than 6 million recipients since the outbreak.
Messages have come out from a whole range of agencies:
- The CDC has sent over 1 million email and wireless/text messages
- PandemicFlu.gov (run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) has also been an active sender
- San Diego County, the City of St. Paul, TX Governor's Office, FEMA, and many others have been sending messages as well
You can follow GovDelivery on Twitter for updates on the activity we are seeing.
Recommendation 1: Visit and monitor the official CDC web page on H1N1 flu outbreak where you can also register to receive email and wireless updates on the right hand side of the page.
You can register for email updates using the box at the bottom of this widget and you can share the widget on your website or with friends in your online social networks by clicking "get and share" in the lower left hand corner.
Already, the widget has been posted in over 100 locations on government websites, blogs, and media websites.
Recommendation 3: Visit your state agency website, and if offered, sign-up for updates. The Minnesota Department of Health, for example, offers a Twitter feed, email updates, and updates by RSS.
IMPORTANT: If you are a government agency that uses the GovDelivery platform, you can visit here for recommendations on action steps you can take to improve flu outreach.
