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For the third straight weekday the Mexican swine 'flu was Story of the Day, although the feverish pace of coverage abated somewhat (9 min Friday, 34 min Monday, 21 min Tuesday). The allocation of $1.5bn in extra funds to the Centers for Disease Control led all three newscasts. Influenza still accounted for more than a third (36% of 58 min) of the three-network newshole. High marks go to Jeffrey Kofman at ABC who traveled to a remote village in Veracruz to find the five-year-old boy who was the first patient on the globe to fall ill with the brand new virus. Edgar Hernandez survived his fever.

ABC's John McKenzie told us that the CDC will use its extra funds to build up stockpiles of antiviral medicine, for monitoring and diagnosis, and for international coordination. "The virus is continuing to spread throughout the country ever more rapidly," noted NBC's Robert Bazell, before adding the good news that "most cases so far have been mild." In total there are just ten 'flu patients hospitalized nationwide. Unidentified "health officials" told ABC's McKenzie that "one reason there may be milder cases in the United States is that there has been earlier, more aggressive screening. Mexico only identified the virus after people were dying from it."

CBS had Nancy Cordes on Capitol Hill, where she covered hearings inquiring into the feasibility of a vaccine--a four to six months timeline--while her colleagues at the other networks were preoccupied with Arlen Specter, the senatorial party-switcher. Noting that pork prices are falling on commodity markets, Cordes came up with a ridiculous angle on the pandemic panic: "Authorities are seriously considering dropping the swine 'flu nickname. Europe did. It is calling it the novel virus. The scientific name is H1N1."


Andrew Tyndall 4/30/09 12:04:49 am

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