Goudsmit chose to write an open letter to a Dutch newspaper with the provocative title 'The Netherlands are unprepared for a viral attack'. The message was that the government was failing to take responsibility for the control of epidemics and public communication; people like Osterhaus were doing what the government should have been doing (NRC Handelsblad 5 July 2003). The Director-General of the Ministry of Public Health replied, in which he acknowledged part of the critique (NRC Handelsblad 17 July 2003). Osterhaus and Coutinho also campaigned for a new infectious disease infrastructure, referring to SARS and avian flu as the wake-up calls. Osterhaus continued his alarming predictions of a pandemic, and even Coutinho made dramatic statements to create awareness (Volkskrant 5 June 2003) , which is contrary to his factitious style of communicating. It was, in his words, steering between the Scylla of a failing outbreak management and the Charybdis of creating a panic (Coutinho 25 July 2008) .