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33 J.L. Med. & Ethics 64 (2005)
Media, Law, and the Public's Health

handle is hein.journals/medeth33 and id is 936 raw text is: CONCURRENT SESSIONS Media, Law, and the Public's Health Toni N. Harp, Maryn McKenna, Nancy Shute, and Dan Rutz (Moderator) Dan Rutz This morning we are exploring some of the tensions that exist between the public health community and the media. My background is in media and as a med- ical correspondent for CNN for 18 years; I have seen things from both the public health and the media side. It is easy to see that there is an uneasy alliance between the media and public health. We need each other but we don't want to get too cozy about it. As a public health person, I realize the importance of inte- grating communications in public health. In order for public health to be truly effective, it has to be under- stood, defined, and explained to the general public. We need the news media to help us do that. Shifting the media's attention to focus on public health issues can be accomplished by educating reporters on why public health issues are important. Toni N. Harp It is an honor to be here and I would like to share with you what I have learned about working with the press. My interest in public health started in the area of sexually transmitted diseases. After learning that chlamydia is a precursor to AIDS, I introduced a bill in the Connecticut legislature on chlamydia to edu- cate our high school students about the disease before they went to college. The bill was introduced and a health writer from the Hartford Courant came to talk to me about it. He thought it was a bizarre bill and it actually earned me my first political cartoon. Working with the press can also help an issue. Recently, one of our priorities in Connecticut was to implement a report card system on hospital safety. Hospital groups and associations were strongly opposed to this measure. In 2001, a dumbed-down bill was passed and then in 2002, in my district, two women died in a hospital. One of them died in the operating room and both deaths were attributed to errors in the administration of anesthesia. The local newspaper ran the story and it was later picked up by the larger newspaper, the Hartford Courant. The press wondered why the hospitals were not held responsible for these deaths. As a result, the state developed a hospital report card system. This time, the hospital groups and associations did not oppose us, largely because the press had taken up the issue. Without the eye of the press, the ultimate law would have not been as effective. The press is our partner. We should fear them, but also work together. Only then can we find ways to move the public health agen- da forward. Maryn McKenna I am author of the book, Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service As a reporter who has been writing about public health, I would like to share my insight into how we report and cover public health issues. I will walk you through two stories about pub- lic health that were received differently by the public. The two public health stories are about the anthrax letter attacks in the fall of 2001 and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. The first anthrax letter incident was announced on October 4, 2001. About 60,000 people were evaluat- ed by healthcare professionals to see whether they needed antibiotics or not, and approximately 10,000 people were put on antibiotics. The House of Representatives was shut down and the Senate was closed for three days. The public health system was completely overwhelmed; public health laboratories were swamped with mail samples that needed analyz- ing. Surprisingly, all of this took place amid an abun- dance of prior publication and literature on anthrax. Anthrax is not an unfamiliar pathogen. Contrast that with SARS. We now know that SARS developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS

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