"The Politics of H1N1" is certainly not lost on the CBC, as they have designed a new Logo for H1N1 that is being prominently displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the screen on CBC Newsworld. That's right, somebody behind the scenes at the CBC recognized the "production value" of the flu and set to creating a Logo with a little production loop to run repeatedly all day. They even have a flash of light that illuminates the word "H1N1" in a constant loop. It is unfortunate that the team at CBC have set out to maximize the PR effect of a virus that is so far down the checklist of "things that could kill you tomorrow" and adding to mass hysteria which can grind economic activity to a halt doing more harm than the bug itself.
The Liberal party of Canada stands to gain if the hysteria catches on. It is another instance where what is best for opposition parties is not what is best for the country. A child dies of pneumonia every 15 seconds on this planet. How many children have died of pneumonia in the past month? How many have died from pig flu? And yet, where are all those PSA's telling parents how to keep their children safe from pneumonia?
The Canadian Economy also added thousands of jobs in October. Do you think they talked about that on the Soloman Show today?
The CBC has made some big changes the last few weeks: it has actually gone from bad to worse.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson from Sars were learned from the media. This hysteria will boost ratings. This is not about the science or facts. Sars 44 died, 800 worldwide. Canada's economy and tourism were harmed. We have the Olympics in 100 days and the media is doing their best to keep this H1N1 story alive for their own purposes.
ReplyDeleteH1N1 may have already peaked in Canada. In Austraila they went through it without their population getting the doses.
How serious and widespread is H1N1?
H1N1 has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the first one of the 21st century. WHO reports that nearly 5,000 people worldwide have died this year as a result of H1N1; as of Oct. 26, this includes 86 Canadians. Patients who experience life-threatening complications do so as a result of lung problems that require them to be placed on respirators. The Australian experience this past summer revealed that 29 out of every million in the population got so sick from H1N1 as to have ended up in an intensive care unit and 15 per cent of these died. Extrapolating to the seven million inhabitants of Quebec, we might expect about 200 patients requiring intensive care and 30 deaths. This is just a guess, however, and the tendency for flu to spread more rapidly as we stay indoors over the winter months may make this worse if we don’t fight back with vaccine. Australia did not have access to the vaccine this summer.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/HealthWatch+H1N1+vaccine+just+shot+dark/2173987/story.html
Agreed the CBC is hoping this will boost their ratings.
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