By Focusing on Resilient Risk Management

Ebola Battlers Can Learn from Venice's Response to Black Death

NPR

Every now and then, a story comes along that makes us editors say, “Why didn’t we think of that?” This is one of those stories, which looks at the devastating Ebola crisis through the lens of both history and risk management, with lessons that go beyond what’s happening in Africa. In a recent article in the journal Environmental Systems and Decisions, a group of risk management experts dissect how Venice responded to the Black Death in the 1400s. At first glance, that response may seem chaotic; but “the authors of the article argue that beyond the chaos lay some surprisingly sophisticated crisis management,” with civic leaders simultaneously enforcing rules like quarantines while also remaining “flexible enough to try alternatives when things went wrong.”