| |
Calling for Your Health
|
| |
There are few things that can cause the sort of public panic that the threat of disease does. Even though H1N1, more commonly known as Swine Flu, has proven to be far less lethal than health officials originally feared, the fact is that it is widespread enough to be classified as a level six pandemic, the first time that a disease has reached this level since 1968.
In this day and age, it's fairly easy to turn on your computer, get on the Internet, and find the information that you need to separate truth from rumor. For example, many people assume that if a disease is classified as a pandemic, that means that large numbers of people are going to die. That is far from the truth, however -- being classified as a pandemic has nothing to do with how lethal a disease is. It simply means that it causes serious illness, is contagious, and has spread over a wide section of the population, which sustains the disease. It takes almost no time at all to look up what being classified as a pandemic actually means.
However, many locales still offer a call center solution to help deal with the public and combat the flow of misinformation that often spreads in the face of such events. Between good old rumor-mongering and the tendency of mass media to sensationalize such events, there tends to be quite a few confused and scared people out there. Many of them would prefer to contact an informative live answering service rather than checking the internet for news, simply because an official information line carries more authority. Plus, the opportunity to speak to a fellow human being who can answer your questions is generally more reassuring than simply reading text on a screen.
The state of Virginia announced this week that they will be expanding their call center services to cover the continuing public concern over the H1N1 pandemic, showing that there is indeed a demand for phone-based information and support. Even with internet technology advances, there is still clearly a place for the old standards.
|
|
