May 2009-Local Resource of the Month

We have been fairly quiet about the print demise of the "Ann Arbor News," not to mention the changes in the delivery methods of the "Detroit Free Press," as they are emblematic of the collapse of city dailies across the country. Mostly, from our point of view, we are interested in what  the ethical consequences of these changes are going to be.  At the same time, we have been pretty reticent about the swine flu situation. There is lots to think about here and  we haven't yet figured out what to say.

It is possible, however, to introduce some of the issues that they both include. Consider the main ethical impact when a media source becomes less accessible in a community in the face of a possible pandemic.

For example, some people rely on local print newspapers to hear about very practical information, including public health information like future swine flu outbreaks. Without a large and overwrought headline that grabs their  attention, "Swine Flu Outbreak Threatens Reopening of Renovated Michigan Stadium!" they would not know what was happening. The key ethical impact is that the loss of the print version of  a local newspaper for some people in a community means they become unfairly and disproportionately disadvantaged in acting on an issue, which in this case, affects their health, and perhaps even their lives.

Nevermind the common response that the number of people who use this media source are a dwindling number of citizens. In a pandemic, they may be its most vulnerable citizens. Or they may even be some of its most crucial citizens. No, not first responders or health care workers. Instead, our electricians or water system workers.

Why do we bring this up? To remind you that a2ethics.org did a podcast (www.a2ethics.org/node/184/)on this very issue in 2008 with several of our own local P3s (Preparedness Point Persons), including the Public Health Director of Washtenaw County and the Emergency Management Director of the City of Ann Arbor. We wanted to know beforehand if we would be the first to get  vaccinated and ventilated in a pandemic. We quickly learned that we wouldn't. Many in the audience that night were actors. As it turns out, according to our P3s, actors do not qualify, even for a ventilator audition. Who needs actors in a real pandemic?  Actors are only good for preparedness simulations to play the dead. And ethicists? Once they have given their views on who deserves the vaccines, they join actors on the "you'll have to suck your own air" list. 

But there are a few people, locals that is, whom we want the P3s  to make sure are given the oxygen they need in the second wave of the swine, avian, marsupial, rodent, or vermin flu that hits us next.

And they are the featured group for the May local resource of the month: the researchers and staff of  The University of Michigan's Center for the History of Medicine at www.med.umich.edu/medschool/chm/. Specifically, we want to feature Dr. Howard Markel, the Director of the Center.

Now we know that pandemics are not selective and make no exceptions. But Dr. Markel and his work have helped us to know this. And he would probably let us know that another ethical impact of some media stories is to distort what is really happening and to cause panic. Yes.  We know that most people out there would rather die first than have the Michigan stadium close for a football game.  Fair enough.  

We want him around because Dr. Markel and his colleagues are probably the world's foremost authorities on the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920, which heavily impacted many American communities and killed, at its lowest estimate, 20 million people worldwide. If you take the time to check out the Center's website and many links, you can find out what Dr. Markel and his Team Flu have been doing most recently. If you click onto  the Influenza Digital project (www.med.umich.edu/medschool/chm/influenza ), you can also download this very fascinating report  about how it was that a few communities in the United States were able to escape the worst of the flu pandemic in 1918-20. True, such a report may be for the most  obsessive Eagle Scout and Hazmatters. But we think it will offer some great lessons to apply for the pandemics to come.

And there will be pandemics to come. This advice is not intended to make you panic.  We just think you should be forewarned.  Especially if you have friends or know people who rely on local print media for their news. You might just call it...Preemptive News, that is the news we would have had if we still had access to it.