Contagious Conversations: Pandemic Preparedness

Everyone and every organization has learned lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic. What lessons have businesses learned that will help prepare for the next health threat to keep their employees and communities safe? We explore this topic in the latest episode of our Contagious Conversations podcast.

I was pleased to be joined on this episode by Stephen Massey, co-founder of Meteorite, a social impact firm, who leads the Health Action Alliance (HAA), which is focused on helping businesses navigate evolving health challenges. Stephen is a social entrepreneur and communications expert who builds unlikely partnerships for social good.

In this episode, we discuss the important role business plays in keeping their employees and communities safe during public health crises. We also discuss how HAA–where the CDC Foundation along with other organizations is a founding member–helped strengthen the business response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HAA is a partnership between leading business, communications and public health organizations to help employers navigate evolving health challenges, including COVID-19 and workplace mental health, and prepare for future public health emergencies. On its website, the Alliance provides free tools, resources, training and events to help companies deliver trusted, fact-based health communications to employees, advance health equity and strengthen relationships with public health for the benefit of workers and communities. The Alliance is hosting an upcoming national employer summit on pandemic preparedness on September 22. Through the summit, employers can learn how to prepare their businesses for future pandemics by building up their workplace and community defenses. Learn more about this event and register at healthaction.org.

I encourage everyone to listen to this episode and learn more about the role of businesses in protecting the health of their employees and their communities.