By
Maureen Taylor
I am sitting this one out. Having covered both SARS and the emergence of H5N1 avian influenza in humans, I find myself watching, listening and reading coverage of a new and novel swine influenza virus that is making its way around the world. I'm back at school this year, and although I’m up to my cervical lymph nodes in homework, I find myself fascinated by news of swine flu, and missing my old job.
There was media self-examination aplenty after SARS. Journalists came under fire for hyping a disease that, in the end, infected 8,096 people and caused 774 deaths (a case-fatality rate of 9.6%). This kind of criticism has already begun for the coverage of swine flu.
I don’t believe the Canadian media did hype SARS. It was a brand new virus, something that jumped from animals to humans for the first time in history and no one could predict how it would behave. But we do have to report responsibly on these issues. We also have to demand information if officials have it. There are many questions they can’t answer, and we should allow them to say that.
So here are my top five Do’s and top five Don’ts for reporters who find themselves covering swine flu or any other quasi-pandemic infectious disease:
Don’t press health experts to predict what’s going to happen. Nobody can predict influenza, especially a new strain like this one. They can only lay out possible theories and scenarios. If someone tries to tell you he knows how this will play out, ask for the evidence.
Do hold government officials accountable for information they should have. I think reporters are too quick to accept the “no confirmed cases” response. Influenza is broken down into strains and types and subtypes. This swine flu is an H1N1. So are other types of human flu. But if you break them down further, they are different subtypes. Only the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg can do the swine flu kind of subtyping. But provincial labs can do everything else. So if a lab gets an H1N1 that it can’t subtype, it must be swine flu. Right now, I guarantee that provincial officials have these kinds of cases and they’re not telling you about them, preferring to wait for Winnipeg to confirm them. So ask how many H1N1 “positives” they have that can’t be further subtyped by their lab. Or just ask how many specimens they’ve shipped to Winnipeg. That should produce a more honest picture of the actual number of cases out there. (Here’s a good story angle: why do all our dangerous pathogens have to be sent to Winnipeg for confirmatory tests? Isn’t it time the Federal government assigned some of this work to other provincial labs so we can get results faster?)
Do learn a little bit about the influenza virus. Why does flu scare public health agencies more than almost any other bug? Why do pandemic strains target the young and healthy instead of the old and young, like regular seasonal flu? Why do we need to get a new flu shot every year? By knowing the basics, you’ll show the infectious disease doctors and microbiologists that you’ve done your homework. Then they’ll share the more interesting tidbits with you.
Don’t report rumors from anyone, even health-care staff or patients in hospitals. A relative of mine called to say his sister who is a nurse knows they had a death in a Waterloo hospital from swine flu last week. I already confirmed that this person died of pneumonia, not H1N1. The two-source rule will serve you well on stories like this.
Don’t let editors and producers persuade you to torque the story. It’s a good story on its own: novel virus made of swine, bird and human influenza travels around the world in days! WHO raises level of pandemic alert! But still, outside of Mexico, this is a pretty mild disease. It may not stay that way, and everyone’s got to prepare, but I don’t think we need to see stories quite yet about stockpiling food and heading for the cottage.
Do learn something about vaccines and anti-viral drugs -- and don’t confuse them, as I heard one US journalist at the White House do the other day. Tamiflu and Relenza are antiviral medications that can lessen the severity of flu symptoms, and this swine virus seems susceptible to them (for now). But only a vaccine can give you immunity, and it takes at least 6 months to produce a vaccine once you identify the virus.
Do know when to scale back coverage. I’m as excited about this virus as the next person, but unless we start to see some hospitalizations and more severe disease outside Mexico, I’m not sure I need to see three stories at the top of the newscast and several pages of my newspaper devoted to it.
On the other hand, don’t be fooled into thinking this could never come back. SARS was beaten back because every single case was followed until it disappeared. SARS only exists today in laboratories, and the chance that it could leap from civet cats to humans again is a statistical long shot. But the WHO says swine flu can’t be contained now. Watch for it to fade away for the summer, as seasonal influenza does, and then reappear next fall. Can next year’s vaccine be switched over in time?
Don’t wear a face mask if you’re reporting in Canada or the US. Just don’t. Unless you get into a room with a spitting, coughing, hacking swine-flu-positive patient.
Do remember that pigs in Canada get influenza all the time. Sometimes, they pass it onto their handlers, but usually that’s the end of it. And the pigs don’t get all that sick, so they go into the food chain. You don’t get swine flu from eating pork and you don’t get bird flu from eating chicken. If you insist on living closely with these animals, that’s another story.
I know that news conferences are happening late in the day, I know that many reporters assigned this story have no previous education or experience covering medicine and health. But if you have a journalist’s sense of curiosity, and a dedication to reporting facts, not just fear, you’ll do fine.
Maureen Taylor covered health as the national medical reporter for CBC Television News until last September, when she took a leave of absence to enter the inaugural Physician Assistant Program at McMaster University.
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Thanks Raul,
In fact, provincial labs ARE acquiring the primers to be able to subtype this swine flu (forgive me, H1N1 Influenza A). B.C. and Alberta are already doing this, and Ontario will be able to confirm it's own specimens by the weekend, thanks to a rapid investment from the provincial government. I believe that all the labs will still send some specimens to the NML to assure quality control and for research purposes. There may be other provinces that will be doing this soon. I'm told this may cut the confirmation time by a day or even two. My source for this is Dr. Donald Low of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (disclosure: aka my husband).
So far there have been only 7 confirmed deaths from swine flu all in Mexico, a country with 110 million people, a lot of poverty and poor drinking water and sewage standards . The media have hyped this so much airlines have cancelled flights, hotels are empty and the economy in this country has been ruined . How many people die in car accident each day ?
Majority of Mexicans very poor and the media has to take some responsibility for further exacerbating their plight by promoting hysteria over what appears to be just another seasonal 'flu outbreak.
Too bad so little coverage on Darfur or all the generations dying of AIDS in Africa . that we should be concerned about .
Maureen, thanks for the sane analysis! I'll miss not having your excellent reporting to chase. Glad to hear about your new gig.
Nancy
Hi Maureen,
Lisa Johnson from the CBC forwarded your article on Twitter. I made a couple of comments that I thought I should share with you. As I indicated to Lisa, your article is good, but I want the sources to one specific statements.
ONLY the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg can typify the swine flu strain.
I am an academic (not a journalist and not an epidemiologist) and therefore, I like finding out the sources of facts. I'd appreciate to know!
Best,
Raul
Wise Words Maureen. The best response to criticism of media hype is responsible reporting. It's good to hear from someone with the background and the experience.