Outbreak culture is a term to describe the collective mindset that develops within communities and by public health and humanitarian responders as a disease outbreak unfolds and the ways that the mindset can inhibit initial action and even worsen an epidemic.
The mindset can develop from challenges in communication and coordination between individuals, agencies, organizations and governments, resistance by local people, uncertainty about the cause and source of a disease, health provider and infrastructure gaps, media coverage and politics.
For example, pandemic fatigue and distrust in the federal government led many Americans to reject public health officials’ requests for people to wear masks in public and to refuse to receive COVID-19 vaccines, which has likely lengthened the time of the pandemic.
To prevent future pandemics, public health leaders say that there needs to be a focus on ways to enhance collaboration between individuals, providers, responders, communities, and governments.