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The COVID-19 crisis has severely affected public health and wellbeing worldwide. Although not always as widespread and tangible as the COVID-19 pandemic, all societies regularly face various types of public health crises. A major challenge in all these crises is fulfilling the public’s need for reliable information. Authorities need to address this need with appropriate and well-adjusted risk communication. The aim of this thesis was to provide recommendations to improve risk communication during various public health crises. To that end, we studied public perceptions and media coverage during three different public health crises in the Netherlands: the discussion about the risks posed by practicing sports on fields with rubber granulate, the rise in meningococcal W infections, and the first three months of the COVID-19 crisis. We derived a number of valuable key findings based on the three studied crises together: • Dynamic public perceptions and responses: Public perceptions and responses during crises can change in relatively short periods of time, under influences of changes in the crisis situation and changes in information provision, for example through media coverage. • Variation in perceptions and responses: Public perceptions and responses vary between people, based on different levels of vulnerability to the risk at hand, with regard to themselves or their loved ones. In addition, parents of underaged children are generally more concerned about risks than others, and more likely to support and adhere to risk mitigation or control measures. • Uncertainties in crises: All crises deal with certain levels of uncertainty, but the influence of these uncertainties on risk communication can differ largely. This depends on the nature and magnitude of uncertainties, the way uncertainties are interpreted and explained by different stakeholders, and the influence of information about uncertainties on public perceptions and responses. • Trust: Trust in those managing r

The COVID-19 crisis has severely affected public health and wellbeing worldwide. Although not always as widespread and tangible as the COVID-19 pandemic, all societies regularly face various types of public health crises. A major challenge in all these crises is fulfilling the public’s need for reliable information. Authorities need to address this need with appropriate and well-adjusted risk communication. The aim of this thesis was to provide recommendations to improve risk communication during various public health crises. To that end, we studied public perceptions and media coverage during three different public health crises in the Netherlands: the discussion about the risks posed by practicing sports on fields with rubber granulate, the rise in meningococcal W infections, and the first three months of the COVID-19 crisis. We derived a number of valuable key findings based on the three studied crises together: • Dynamic public perceptions and responses: Public perceptions and responses during crises can change in relatively short periods of time, under influences of changes in the crisis situation and changes in information provision, for example through media coverage. • Variation in perceptions and responses: Public perceptions and responses vary between people, based on different levels of vulnerability to the risk at hand, with regard to themselves or their loved ones. In addition, parents of underaged children are generally more concerned about risks than others, and more likely to support and adhere to risk mitigation or control measures. • Uncertainties in crises: All crises deal with certain levels of uncertainty, but the influence of these uncertainties on risk communication can differ largely. This depends on the nature and magnitude of uncertainties, the way uncertainties are interpreted and explained by different stakeholders, and the influence of information about uncertainties on public perceptions and responses. • Trust: Trust in those managing r