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On all four days of influenza coverage, ABC and NBC have used the same go-to correspondents for their leads: John McKenzie and Robert Bazell. CBS settled on Nancy Cordes as its 'flu specialist only on Tuesday. The WHO alert, ABC's McKenzie explained, means that governments around the globe are being advised to stockpile drugs, to develop vaccines and to formulate emergency plans. NBC's Bazell included worldwide anecdotes, including Egypt's decision to kill all of its pigs--who knew that Egypt had any pigs in the first place?--and Lebanon's ban on kissing as a greeting and Ecuador's plan to halt airline flights to Mexico. CBS' Cordes pointed out that "the situation appears to be stabilizing" in Mexico City, with only one 'flu death daily. The United States suffered its first fatality of the outbreak as a Mexican toddler succumbed in a hospital in Houston two weeks after he had been admitted.
ABC anchor Charles Gibson asked his network's in-house physician Timothy Johnson about Dr Chan's humanity under threat wording at WHO. "Honestly, Charlie, I think that is a bit excessive. It is not true that every single individual in this world, on this plant, is at risk." NBC' Bazell filled us in on the technicalities of WHO's alert: "A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of a virus to which people have no immunity. That now seems very likely to happen. We know this virus can cause mild disease and it can kill. The big question is: What is the ratio of mild disease to serious cases?"
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