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Both CBS and NBC picked up on research in the Journal of the American Medical Association that, at first blush, seemed to imply that the H1N1 swine strain of the influenza virus is not the bane of the younger generation after all. The research analyzed more than 1,000 patients in California. It found that their death rate was 11% overall, but much higher, up to 20%, for those patients who were older than 50 years of age.
"While H1N1 mostly strikes younger patients, older ones are not immune," warned CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook. "While the new virus is mostly a disease of children and young adults, it can strike older people as well," was how NBC's Robert Bazell put it.
Confused? The explanation lies in how the JAMA researchers selected the 1,000 people they analyzed. They were not a sample of the general population or even of those who were infected with the virus. They were a much smaller subset--those whom the virus made so seriously sick that they required hospitalization. CBS' LaPook explained that fully two thirds had underlying medical problems.
This research had such potential to mislead the newscasts' disproportionately elderly audience that ABC was wise to decide to leave it unreported.
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