Media and Swine Flu

I am a little worried about the way that the media here in Japan is handling the outbreak of swine flu. This morning I noticed the lead story on the news was that the new swine flu had spread to the Tokyo area. They gave details on where the newly infected person lives, and even the route they traveled to get back to their house, even telling us if the person was wearing a mask or not. I think this is a little irresponsible. It makes people worry, yet doesn't seem to help them at all. I wish the news would focus on what people should do to prevent getting sick and reassure people that this new flu really isn't any more dangerous than normal flu.

The news did mention that you shoul wash your hands, and it did mention how to take care of people who were sick in their homes, and it did mention that you would likely not die from catching the flu, but it should have spent more time on these important matters and less time telling people about where the new cases of swine flu happened and transportation routes that the infected person may have traveled. This is simply not helpful.

The news is suppossed to be a public service. Encouraging people to panic is not a service. Instead, I would like to see the news providing more balanced coverage and urging people to recognise swine flu for what it is, just a bad case of the flu.