In this episode of Local Gov Life, A.C. Gonzalez and Sana Syed cover how they navigated the Ebola crisis that struck Dallas three years ago.
"We were managing the fear and the panic more than we were managing Ebola itself." In 2014, A. C. Gonzalez was Dallas city manager and Sana Syed was the public information officer. They took a look back at how they navigated through the crisis when the first confirmed U.S. case of Ebola surfaced in their city. The deadly disease had struck West Africa initially, killing more than 11,000 people. When a Dallas man traveling from Africa returned home and fell ill with symptoms, residents became so frightened, they were pulling children out of school and avoiding public venues. Before the crisis ended, two additional residents contracted the disease and city officials worked around the clock to keep everyone—from city staff to medical professionals from the Centers for Disease Control—informed. The city even had to find a way to test and house the dog of one of the patients.
Gonzalez looks at how the crisis impacted the city in unprecedented ways, in this episode of the Local Gov Life Podcast. He and Syed discuss the many ways they engaged the community and civic groups as well as how having strong relationships helped pave the way in uncharted territory.
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