瘟疫、谣言与社会恐慌——以湖南为例的研究

PLAGUE, RUMORS AND SOCIAL PANIC Taking Hunan as a Case

建国前湖南瘟疫频仍,严重危害民众的生命健康。大量人口的染疫与死亡,甚至短时期内"整家整户皆绝",往往造成巨大的社会恐慌。在瘟疫发生、人心惶惑之际,政府一方面要及时采取各种有效措施施医送药、积极防治;另一方面必须加强疫病防治知识的宣传普及,防微杜渐,正确引导社会舆论,尽释群疑,安定人心。否则任由谣言以讹传讹,无限放大,将会带来灾难性的后果。

Before 1949, the plague of Hunan province was frequent, which seriously harm ed people＇s lives and health. The enorm ous social panic often originated from a large num ber of infected people or death tolls, even the＂whole fam ilies was on the verge of extinction＂in a short tim e. When the plague struck, all people get into the m ood of terrified worry. At this very m om ent, on the one hand the governm ent should tim ely take various effective m easures given proper m edical assistance, active control and prevention;on the other hand it m ust strengthen the propaganda and popularization of knowledge of epidem ic disease prevention and control, nip it in the bud, guide public opinion correctly and try to relieve the doubts from the public＇s m inds and restore calm . Otherwise, if let the rum or relay an erroneous m essage blindly and m agnify infinitely, it would bring catastrophic consequences.