Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-gerwin/is-the-media-flunking-an-_b_1297608.html
Leslie Gerwin
Is the Media Flunking an Epidemic Readiness Test?
Posted: 02/23/2012 5:05 pm
"VIRUS SPREADS AT TWO COLLEGES" screamed the boldface headline on the front page of a recent Times of Trenton in New Jersey. For those encountering this alarming story for the first time, there was at least some reassurance: the smaller boldface subheading announced, "Officials say contagion's peaked." Anyone skimming the front page could also learn that the "highly contagious norovirus" was "basically contained" on the two campuses.
The problem was that the story was misleading and incomplete. As one who studies public health preparedness, I believe, however, that it may represent some of the challenges we could face as a nation when confronted with a life-threatening epidemic...
Leslie Gerwin
Is the Media Flunking an Epidemic Readiness Test?
Posted: 02/23/2012 5:05 pm
"VIRUS SPREADS AT TWO COLLEGES" screamed the boldface headline on the front page of a recent Times of Trenton in New Jersey. For those encountering this alarming story for the first time, there was at least some reassurance: the smaller boldface subheading announced, "Officials say contagion's peaked." Anyone skimming the front page could also learn that the "highly contagious norovirus" was "basically contained" on the two campuses.
The problem was that the story was misleading and incomplete. As one who studies public health preparedness, I believe, however, that it may represent some of the challenges we could face as a nation when confronted with a life-threatening epidemic...