Swine Flu: In NIH Press Releases, Reading Between the Lines

The thought-provoking group blog on public health, Effect Measure, has a worthwhile post today on science and health reporters who burrowed deep into a National Institutes of Health press release on H1N1/swine flu vaccine to get the not-so-good news as well as the good.

The anonymous writer highlights the good work of Maggie Fox (Reuters), Helen Branswell (Canadian Press), Jon Cohen (Science Magazine) and Richard Knox (NPR) in ferreting out what the NIH tried to de-emphasize: that children under 10 would likely need two doses of the H1N1 vaccine, not one.

From the post:

NIH portrayed that as meaning things are just like seasonal flu (where two shots for those first immunized under ten are also used), and that's technically correct. But that wasn't the real news buried halfway through the press release.

I've spent a lot of time here complaining how so much science reporting I see everyday is barely massaged press releases regurgitated by reporters acting as stenographers. So I wanted to make sure to say -- again, because I've said it a lot here -- that there are some really good science reporters out there that don't do that. For the ones I didn't mention I apologize. It's one of the hazards of mentioning any. You inevitably leave out more just as deserving. But you know who you are and so do we. And we're glad some of you are still around.

I'll be highlighting the best bloggers, journalists and tweeters to follow on H1N1/swine flu in a future post. Who absolutely should be included to stay current? Share your recommendations in the comments below or email editor@reportingonhealth.org. You need to be a registered member of Center for Health Journalism Digital to leave a comment, so if you haven't joined yet, click here.It's easy, quick and free.