How we get the news that we need to know about disease and healthcare has changed a lot in recent years, and in some ways, not for the better.  If we listen to 24-hour TV news stations for our news on the H1N1 flu, the facts we hear can get so twisted and misshapen that they barely resemble real, helpful, scientific data. 

We used to get news from a newspaper, from the top of the hour news broadcast on the radio, or from the TV evening news at 7 or 10.  Frankly, that would be quite enough news about the H1N1 influenza, because in addition to that news, we are in the “Internet World” (go e-patients!) and we can also go to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website and get all of the info we need about the H1N1 flu.  That website is so filled with facts and figures that I really want to point you to the best information for you there, and that is the www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ page, then click on the left sidebar on “General Info,” and then on “H1N1 Flu & You.” 

Everything you need to know is there in that handout.  If you read that five-page handout, you will know more medical and common-sense information than most, and probably more than you need to know.  Print it out and keep that handout around the house and refer to it when you have a question.

You can also click on the other General Info subjects on the left sidebar there if they interest you, or even go into the “Info for Specific Groups.”  There’s even more information for patients under “Guidance.”  There’s just no dearth of rational, scientifically-based advice on H1N1 flu.

But twenty-four hour news stations have warped the news.  There’s only so much rational, factual news to report—but when you have 24 hours to fill with news—well, it starts with the real news, but in order to turn it into 24 hours of it, the facts and the syntax of anyone being quoted are tortured endlessly, with tiny pieces of “questionable information” teased out, questioned, and commented on, and then a few “expert guests” are asked to make a few comments, then there is a discussion, and then the whole salad is tossed again.  Now this is entertainment, no question—but if you’re listening to one of these discussions, I just hope that you’re not coming away from them with what you think are the real facts.

I have clicked through some jewelry shopping stations, and been amazed at how much of a story a salesperson can weave around the selling of one piece of jewelry.  I listen sometimes because I’m fascinated at the storytelling:

“Well this silver ring here is beautiful.  You know, I could wear this really easily to a dinner party.  It would look great with silver, but then a lot of people like to mix gold with silver these days.  Oh, and you know I’m going to a bridal shower next week, and I’d also feel really comfortable wearing this ring there.  Also at a tea.  Wouldn’t this look nice as you were pouring steaming tea into fine china cups.  Especially from a silver tea set!  And yet it’s casual enough I would feel comfortable wearing it to one of my daughter’s parent-teacher conferences …”

They are weaving a story of their own making around this silver ring.  And that’s what I feel these commentators on 24-hour news stations are doing—they are weaving whatever they can into the real facts so that they can keep your interest and intrigue you with new possibilities that were never really involved with the flu or the real medical facts in the first place.

This type of story-weaving is fine for selling silver rings.  But we shouldn’t get our news this way. 

So try to avoid believing there’s substance in more news than you can get from regular news broadcasts, reputable print news, and selective Internet research from reputable sources.

(And if you really want to/need to stay as up-to-date as you possibly can on the H1N1 flu, go to www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/press for all press updates, and also note the paragraph right under “H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) Press Updates,” and use that link as well.)