NEW PAPER. As #CoronavirusOutbreak spreads, China responds, and @WHO determines that it will not invoke emergency tools, pleased to publish @Nonstopdoc and our team at Security and Global Health Project's new research. Welcome to wonkworld and follow along. @Kennedy_School 1/
Security is as much about the threat itself as it it about the challenges in responding to it. It is why, from the homeland security perspective, the worries we have tend to be those that are not easily addressed by traditional state-to-state solutions (war, diplomacy, etc). 2/
The 4 major ones we focus on for homeland security -- terrorism, cyber, climate change and pandemics -- are all borderless threats. They are most often created and impact across traditional governance rules and national boundaries. They are not resolved by chain of command. 3/
Or as I like to say to my homeland security class, "if it were easy, it wouldn't look this bad." These threats are why we think of our defenses in terms of "all hazards" because they have commonalities, despite some real distinctions. 4/
And one of those common traits is use of disinformation to increase risks as well as the vulnerabilities: white supremacy radicalization, climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, etc. This paper helps expose how attacks on health intelligence/information systems are part of a playbook. 5/
Indeed, @WHO, in determining that #wuhanoutbreak would not be classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), noted the extent of disinformation and lack of information. Trust is lost when facts are manipulated. It's part of the playbook. 6/
Disinformation is a huge part of our response and capabilities with #wuhan. Hopefully this paper helps (and thanks to @belfercenter comms team for rushing along) Margaret Bourdeaux can be reached at @Nonstopdoc and mbourdeaux@hks.harvard.edu. Class dismissed. 7/7
