H1N1 Flu – Sensationalised, Yes, But Also Deadly

Hong Kong – Was the Swine Flu pandemic overhyped?

“Yes!” is the short answer, Thomas Abraham, director of the Public Health Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, said during a luncheon speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, on February 1.

Discovery of Disease

The H1NI — or swine flu — outbreak began only three months after Abraham took up his post at the WHO in 2009. It quickly spread worldwide. “This was a serious disease; young healthy people were dying and falling sick,” he said.

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The WHO set up a 24-hour “war room” where logisticians, epidemiologists, and other experts worked around the clock to map the disease and distribute medicines.

Media Influence

Abraham handled press attention following the outbreak.  “The press is often accused of hyping up things, and there is some truth to it,” he said.

Journalists shape public perception of the disease, he said. Headlines often contained sensational phrasing, such as “Fear killer flu” and “Deadly swine flu can’t be contained,” which required the WHO to carefully scrutinise press releases to avoid creating unnecessary panic.

He said the experience reminded him why good journalists are important — they “keep you on your toes,” and “they keep you honest.”

WHO Information Control

Abraham said press coverage contributed to over-hyping of the pandemic, and government statements also played a role.

The WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Communicable Disease, Margaret Chan, made an especially noticeable impact in Hong Kong. “Ms. Chan had been the Director of Health of Hong Kong doing the outbreak of SARS. Here she, and the Hong Kong Government, was criticised for not reacting quickly enough,” Abraham said.

“She was determined to make sure that nobody again criticised her for not doing enough” he said.  The tactic backfired. Many months later, Chan was criticized for the very opposite, “for calling a pussycat, a tiger.”

Over-hyped Pandemic

Media sensationalism of swine flu does not imply that the pandemic was not a serious risk to public health.

Most affected people suffered mildly from the disease. But the disease caused severe damage to the lungs of some victims. Many suffered pain and even death.

“The way we communicated and perceived this disease, was out of proportion to reality, but the reality about the disease was not,” Abraham said.

He finished the talk with a warning. He was concerned that the mass movement of people travelling cross-country during the Chinese New Year may increase the number of Swine Flu cases in China.

Thomas Abraham took a sabbatical from the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) at Hong Kong University to spend a year directing media relations for the WHO. Before joining the JMSC in 2003, he was editor of the English-language South China Morning Post newspaper. He is the author of Twenty-First Century Plague: The Story of SARS, published in 2004.