The Government Public Health Crisis Public Relations Problem Research

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs mentions that the most basic needs of human survival is the physical needs and security is in second place. When we talks about security, public health security which relates to our health comes into our mind. From the Ma Si Valley smog episode in1930to recently influenza A (H1N1), during the nearest82years, many public health security issues take place in the world. Once again, public health security causes for national and global concern. Once the public health emergencies erupt and if the government failed to take effective measures to control it in the beginning, the influence will rapidly expand and it will cause great panic of the public, which will affect the image and status of the government in the eyes of the public. Therefore, the government departments should pay full attention to public relations in the public health crisis and make efforts to form a complete set of emergency management system.In2003, SARS swept China with lightning speed which challenged the ability of Chinese government to respond to crises. But, at the time, Chinese government had little study in crisis management and crisis public relations, so SARS had brought great impact to China. After SARS, Chinese government pays more and more attention to crisis management and public relations, but it can be said that public relations in the public health crisis of Chinese government is still in its infancy, lacking sound laws and regulations. Meanwhile, the public officials’consciousness of crisis public relation is not systematic and some government officials know little about the knowledge of public relations in the public health crisis. In the same time, the public’s request on the government has been improved. They require not only the government can effectively control the outbreak of a public health crisis, but also can maximally disclose the information. Therefore, the disclosure and balance mechanism of government public health crisis public relations has been studied by more and more experts and scholars. However, the disclosure of government information is influenced by the conflicts and contradictions of different interests. It is necessarily involving the interests of the limitations and balance problems. Due to the ambiguity and cross-border of the Chinese right of information and the lack of maneuverability in the implementation, it is easy to make the executive refuse information disclosure as a result of the restrictions of interests. Therefore, we should pay attention to the study of government public health crisis public relations.Taking the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in2009for example, this paper analyzes the problems of the government dealing with the public health crisis public relations during the influenza A (H1N1). At last, the author puts forward some policies and suggestions to improve Chinese government’s public health crisis public relations.