What most people will take away after hearing about today’s research on the possibility of airborne transmission of prions is a feeling that they aren’t as safe as they thought they were. They might remember it has something to do with “mad cow” disease, but not what. And that’s a problem.
We tend to want to think of risks in simple terms: either it can’t happen, or it can. Every time we learn that something potentially dangerous might happen, we’re afraid.
Most people don’t know what prions are, or what they mean for disease. All we understand is that in some way, prions are “bad.”
We also intuitively understand how much we can control our risk of getting disease through different exposure pathways. I know that I can choose not to touch something or eat something. It’s a lot harder not to breathe something if it’s in the air. So, when we hear the phrase “airborne transmission,” it naturally makes us wonder: “Is this stuff in the air I’m breathing right now?” And then we’re afraid.
What most people can’t do is put this finding into the larger context. Just because airborne transmission is possible does not mean that is likely. It certainly does not mean that dangerous prions are widely circulating in homes and businesses.
Nor does it necessarily change the known risks of prion-based disease. In fact, even if airborne transmission of prions does occur in the real world, it seems likely it will be far less significant than other, known pathways of exposure, such as diet.
I understand the shot of fear that people feel when they hear about a new type of risk. It’s natural. It’s the way we are built.
What we need to remember is that the fear we feel should motivate us but not rule us. We need to learn more about this result, replicate it, and learn what it means for risk management. We need to see whether there are reasonable precautions that should be considered. At the same time, we should make sure not to take actions just because we want to feel like we’re doing something.
Most importantly, we need to recognize that the fear we feel is mostly about the fear of the new and unknown, not the risks from airborne transmission of prions per se.
Take a breath. It’s ok.
Source: Haybaeck J, Heikenwalder M, Klevenz B, Schwarz P, Margalith I, et al. 2011 Aerosols Transmit Prions to Immunocompetent and Immunodeficient Mice. PLoS Pathog 7(1): e1001257. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001257
Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher is an Assistant Professor, Health Behavior & Health Education, in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and a member of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center. He specializes in risk communication to inform health and medical decision making.
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