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It’s too early to tell if their plans will work, but for now, it is prudent for health authorities to change their strategy in dealing with the Influenza A (H1N1) in the wake of the decision by school authorities to suspend classes early in the school season.
The University of Cebu (UC) suspended their classes after 18 nautical students got sick of the virus. The students were confined at a dormitory in its Lapu-Lapu-Mandaue campus on June 29 and the students have since recovered.
While UC President Augusto Go said he got clearance from the Department of Health (DOH) to open classes, he blamed media for sensationalizing the news on the H1N1 virus. He cited in particular a statement from one priest that masses need to be suspended if only to protect the Catholic faithful.
While Go is understandably upset over the news, it was not as if media was sorely lacking in giving the real picture on the situation. He was not the only one complaining but the hotel industry as well, though they were careful to show their disappointment.
The spate of advisories being printed and broadcast on an almost daily basis attests to the care that media took not to “sensationalize” the H1N1 situation as the UC president termed it.
, for one, carried the story that the clergy saw no need to suspend Masses due to the H1N1 threat which, as had been repeated time and again in every media outlet, isn’t lethal in itself unless accompanied by other medical complications.
That was the likely explanation given by health officials on the death of one Congress employee. Unfortunately, Speaker Prospero Nograles deemed it fit to panic and shut down operations.
In the case of schools, DOH has reminded school owners that they have the option whether or not to suspend classes, though they strongly advise against doing so.
Hence their new tack of “containment” in order not to alarm folks who otherwise didn’t have any contact with balikbayans or foreigners from H1N1-afflicted countries. With their regular press conferences, the DOH is assured of sending their message across and this is being delivered to the public sans any sensationalizing.
At least 70 percent of those who got sick of the virus have recovered after ample rest and treatment. And to prevent the spread of the virus, we only have to wash our hands properly and frequently, and cover our mouths when we sneeze or cough.
Prudence is quite difficult to come by in an age where information overload is the norm owing to the vast resources under one’s disposal.
But the alternatives of either looking the other way or downright censorship aren’t palatable either.
