Doing communication history in sanitary systems beyond a “shell game”: a mirror comparison on silence and managerial delay practices in communicating epidemics

Abstract

This paper intends to explore the response to the Covid-19 spread under the lens of managerial perspective related to the communication practices and the probable delay provided as a strategy to avoid panic. Timeliness in health management is crucial and delay could be lethal. The research proposes an exploration on the epidemics’ response under the news titles lens and historical view based on original correspondence provided by an institutional perspective. The authors investigate the communication practices and the probable delay provided as a strategy to avoid panic or negative image repercussions. Through a synchronic and diachronic approach (news and original documents), the authors provide a comparison on communication institutional habits in the early stages of epidemics. Similarities would be present among the ancestral case of plague in 1656 and the recent Covid-19 about institutional communication response. This paper would be useful in providing a frame about lessons from the past, according to the considerations made about the actual Covid-19 pandemic spread, relating social responsible behaviours in sanitary systems and managerial delay practice in communication of the epidemic events.