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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 13)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented Dr. Vincent Covello with what seemed like an impossible mission: work with a band of scientists, communication professionals and…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 12)

As a pioneer in the realm of risk, high concern and crisis communication, Dr. Vincent Covello never knows what to expect when he checks his phone. In one case, he…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 11)

The XXXI Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016 set the stage for a risk communication challenge that extended over multiple fronts. The culprit: mosquitoes spreading the Zika virus. At the…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 10)

Any threat to the health of children raises high concern and an unfailingly emotion-driven response. This was the case when concerned citizens believed hazardous waste from an industrial facility had…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 9)

As we look back now, February 2020 might seem as though it were a decade ago. COVID-19 was already changing the world in complex ways. For Dr. Vincent Covello, that…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 8)

In the summer of 2014, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Dr. Vincent Covello to serve as senior adviser to a WHO emergency committee aimed at Ebola,…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 7)

In 1989, a remarkable interview took place on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Before 40 million viewers, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Jack Moore, sat in the hot…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 6)

Toxic gases were spreading after an explosion at an industrial plant in Asia. If something wasn’t done quickly, the situation would worsen drastically. The industrial plant needed aid but inexplicably…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 5)

Boos, foot-stomping, and catcalls are not the hoped-for response when hosting a public forum. But after a town hall meeting went disastrously awry, that’s exactly the reaction Dr. Vincent Covello…

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A Look Inside “Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations” (Part 4)

No matter where you work, when you get a call from your organization’s director, you answer that call. In 1981, the organization in question was the National Science Foundation, the…