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A miscarriage of information: the 2009 Swine flu distance diagnosis and misleading media in the UK

Global disease in a globalised world

Modern age pandemics have found an easier and quicker way of spreading through continents with the increased mobility globalisation offers to the citizens of the world. Viruses mutate and are transported to distant countries, often causing outbreaks of new diseases, such as the case of the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

The H1N1 virus, labelled swine flu by the American media, started spreading from Mexico in early 2009 but a formal declaration concerning the outbreak of the pandemic was only made in June, thus allowing the virus to travel to Europe and the rest of the world.
The UK was the most affected European country, with 79 officially reported deaths related to swine flu. Both the health system and the government implemented modern measures to help fight the pandemic, yet some of them are seen in a controversial light.

Media frenzy and misinformation

Although the pandemic occurred in an era of global communication and ease of access to information, it was mainly characterised by a spread of misleading data and facts among the general public, thereby exacerbating the health crisis.

The name of the pandemic itself, firstly introduced by the American media, created the false belief that the virus could be contracted by eating pork meat. Objections to this claim later lead the new strain of influenza to be labelled “North American Influenza” or simply referred to by its scientific name - H1N1. “This [swine flu] label persisted in some countries, even though it became obvious that there was no link between most of the cases and pigs” stated the H1N1 special report issued by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in November 2010.

The proliferation of the virus was intensively covered by the UK media, with reports of new cases being aired every day, thus creating panic in the population and fomenting hysteria with headlines such as: “NHS prepares for 65,000 deaths from swine flu”. In reaction to this, the EU issued a warning against the swine flu frenzy, with EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou stating that Europe was well prepared to face the situation and there was “no need to panic”. Unfortunately it was too late and the concern over the unstoppable health emergency was already deeply rooted in the public.

When the solution becomes the problem

Within one day of the opening of the swine flu National Health Service (NHS) website, it registered 2,600 hits per second and an average of 9.3 million hits per hour. Helplines were opened to support UK citizens in gaining access to drugs and receiving distance diagnosis over possible swine flu-related symptoms. Patients were no longer allowed to see doctors, as the virus could spread in the waiting rooms, so the “do-it-yourself” diagnosis over the Internet or the NHS hot lines was the only point of reference. As the symptoms of the 2009 flu were very similar to those of any other ordinary flu, with fever, aching muscles, headaches and breathing problems, not being allowed to visit a doctor led to very serious misdiagnoses and several cases of death. Cases of tonsillitis, meningitis, diabetes and other diseases were wrongly diagnosed as swine flu and often treated with Tamiflu.  The drug was delivered through the post to reduce the risk of contracting the virus, and was prescribed without any physical checks on patients; allergic reactions and dangerous side effects also raised the death toll.

Media reaction and responsibility

If the media played a decisive role in setting up a panic scenario, there were also voices from the national newspapers’ columns openly speaking out against the exploitation of the pandemic scare. In April 2009, Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins started a debate with his article “Swine Flu? A Panic Stoked in Order to Posture and Spend”, urging the media to adopt a reasonable stand and stop speculating on the virus: “Health scares enable media-hungry doctors, public health officials and drugs companies to benefit by manipulating fright”. His worry about the misleading role of the UK media was mirrored by Ben Goldacre twenty days later in the “Comment is Free” section of The Guardian. He underlined how, not only the general public, but the media themselves, “lost all confidence in their own ability to give us the facts”, a statement that should be at the basis of a wider discussion about how dangerous journalism can become when misused.

Tags: androulla vassiliou, ben goldacre, columnist, diseases, europe, european centre for disease prevention and control, european union, fever, flu, general public global disease, guardian, headaches, health commissioner, hysteria, influenza, mexico, national health service nhs, nhs, north american influenza, ordinary flu, patients allergic reactions, public global disease, scientific name h1n1 this swine flu, simon jenkins, swine flu, tamiflu, the guardian, tonsillitis meningitis diabetes, united kingdom,

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