Insights

<p><img src="/files/u47/West_Nile_Virus_3.jpg" alt="West Nile virus sign" width="240" height="182" style="float: left; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" /></p><p>Ah, summertime. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing and the mosquitoes are biting. Yep, it's time for the annual West Nile virus story! Here are some tips and resources for covering this important public health issue without sounding like a public service announcement.</p>

<p>A judge this week <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/14/local/la-me-conrad-murray-20100… an attempt</a> by the state of California to temporarily ban Dr. Conrad Murray, the doctor charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.</p> <p>Now the ball is in the Medical Board of California’s court. The board rightly sought to use the criminal justice system first to stop Murray from practicing.</p><p>But few reporters picked up on the fact that the criminal system isn’t the only route.</p>

<p>For the June 2 edition of Vida en el Valle, I wrote a <a href="http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/2010/06/07/629569/all-in-the-family.html">… about the García family of Pixley</a>. (The story was produced with the support of <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/fellowships">The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships</a>, a program of USC's Annenberg School for Communication &amp; Journalism.)</p>

<p>My friend <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/farnsworth-248950-says-blood.html">C… Farnsworth</a> recently published a book called <a href="http://www.presidentsvampire.com/">Blood Oath</a>. It’s about a vampire who works for the president. After a reading he gave last week, I asked him, “Knowing that you are only one book into a three-book deal, why did you decide to put Frankenstein, werewolves, a vampire and zombies all in the first book?” He said, “It’s the Jack Kirby school of writing. If you have it, put it all in.”</p>

<p>From the annals of gross but important stories – now, with a summer news peg! – comes a new <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5906a1.htm?s_cid=ss5906a1_e"… MMWR report</a> showing a striking 62 percent increase in the number of cryptosporidiosis cases from 2006 to 2008. Because <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/crypto/">cryptosporidiosis</a&gt; is a waterborne disease, this basically suggests that more kids are swimming in pools or playing in other water tainted with enough cryptosporidium protozoa (parasites) to make them sick.</p>

<p>Courtney Perkes could have phoned it in. She was the fourth reporter to have covered the seemingly never-ending saga of Dr. Andrew Rutland, an obstetrician who, most recently, has been accused of botching an abortion that led to a woman’s death. A story that requires a lot of “the Register reported in 2001” sentences can quickly become an exercise in burnishing boilerplate. But Perkes took a different tack. She used the Rutland case to ask an important question: how often do doctors like Rutland lose their licenses, only to get them back?

<p>It can be a slog, covering health reform’s intricacies day in and day out. Fortunately, four top health journalists gathered today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/calendar-details.php?id=505">to brief reporters</a> on how they continue to find new angles, stay ahead of the curve and – perhaps most importantly – keep their editors interested. The briefing was geared toward Beltway reporters, but there was plenty of advice for regional journalists on localizing the rollout of federal health reform legislation.</p>

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<p>Last week, my oldest daughter graduated from high school and began her journey as a young adult. As a proud parent and the commencement speaker, I shared some life lessons with the class of 2010. Here is some of what I said:</p> <p>Mr. Ronnie Quinn is about my age but twice my size and looks like Michael Oher, the professional football player from the movie "The Blind Side."</p> <p>Despite high fever and his blood teeming with bacteria, he was sitting up in his hospital bed with the sheets pulled up to his thighs. Looking me in the eye, he greeted me with a smile.</p>

<p>(cross-posted and edited from the<a href="http://www.diabetesmine.com/2010/05/introducing-“tuanalyze”-why-mapping-diabetes-data-matters.html" target="_blank"> original version posted in DiabetesMine</a>)</p>