Don't Whine about Swine Coverage
It’s popular to criticize the media for inaccurate reporting or sensationalism. Those of us who have been members of the media or are eager news junkies are among the critics. But I think the media and the U.S. government deserves credit for their handling of the H1N1 flu story.
But the amount of information that is available to the public by the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization is astounding. Those of us in communications know that regularly updating websites and blogs, issuing news releases and holding regular news conferences is a time intensive process. But those efforts enable the public in a matter of seconds, 24 hours a day to get the latest information. You can even sign up to get e-mail notification when new reports are issued.
A few of my favorite sites on H1N1 include the following: www.pandemicflu.gov, www.who.int, www.cdc.gov/swineflu and on twitter: swineflubrk or swinfluticker.
There’s a lot of misinformation spreading about the flu pandemic and R/P played a part in trying to get accurate and timely information released about a non-profit organization near and dear to our hearts. Spring Point Project, whose mission is to provide pig islet cells for human transplantation to cure diabetes, was concerned that news of the so called “swine flu” might negatively impact their good cause. Spring Point raises healthy pigs and partners with the University of Minnesota in this important research, which is nearing FDA clinical trials. A blog post and a news release on their website at the inception of the media coverage helped to communicate the facts to donors, residents and others who support the project. http://www.springpointproject.org/media/
It’s good to know that the government and media are geared up to handle a major health crisis. It may be fashionable to bash the government or media, but in this case let’s be thankful that in a free and open society we have information at our fingertips which can save lives or at least keep us informed.
Sure we were bombarded 24 hours a day for an entire weekend when the story first broke about a child’s death due to what was then being called the “swine flu.” And those that didn’t run out to buy extra bars of soap or hand sanitizer probably weren’t watching or listening. It even surprised me when President Barack Obama gave official advice on hand washing.
But the amount of information that is available to the public by the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization is astounding. Those of us in communications know that regularly updating websites and blogs, issuing news releases and holding regular news conferences is a time intensive process. But those efforts enable the public in a matter of seconds, 24 hours a day to get the latest information. You can even sign up to get e-mail notification when new reports are issued.
A few of my favorite sites on H1N1 include the following: www.pandemicflu.gov, www.who.int, www.cdc.gov/swineflu and on twitter: swineflubrk or swinfluticker.
There’s a lot of misinformation spreading about the flu pandemic and R/P played a part in trying to get accurate and timely information released about a non-profit organization near and dear to our hearts. Spring Point Project, whose mission is to provide pig islet cells for human transplantation to cure diabetes, was concerned that news of the so called “swine flu” might negatively impact their good cause. Spring Point raises healthy pigs and partners with the University of Minnesota in this important research, which is nearing FDA clinical trials. A blog post and a news release on their website at the inception of the media coverage helped to communicate the facts to donors, residents and others who support the project. http://www.springpointproject.org/media/
It’s good to know that the government and media are geared up to handle a major health crisis. It may be fashionable to bash the government or media, but in this case let’s be thankful that in a free and open society we have information at our fingertips which can save lives or at least keep us informed.
posted by Janet Bosserman, APR at
2:15 PM
1 Comments:
Timely post, Janet! The World Health Organization today declared the H1N1 flu a pandemic -- raising the alert level from 5 to 6.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124471165680705709.html#mod=djemalertNEWS
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