The H1N1 vaccine shortage referred to in yesterday's New York Times is further explained in Thursday's paper. Its called "a snag in U.S. planning" and "despite months of planning and preparation, a vaccine shortage is threatening to undermine public condfidence in government." But it seems like every year, the media announces a shortage in this or that vaccine and the masses scramble to pharmacies and doctor offices in a panic for a shot.
The Obama administration made their fair attempts at their first major domestic emergency from websites to weekly addresses to Sesame Street characters, all that provided up-to-date information on H1N1. Obama was advised by some of President Ford's former health officials. Yet for all of his public education, his expectations were too high and too optimistic in regard to the availability of the vaccine.
In other news, NASA's gamma-ray race legitimizes Einstein's theory, 100 were killed in a Pakistan bombing, an American Marine Staff Sergeant was killed in Afghanistan, actor Matthew Broderick employs the help of prompts to remember his play lines and the King of Pop lives on through the debut of his documentary "This Is It."
The gruesome Pakistan bombing above the Matthew Broderick story got me to thinking about the composition of articles that we talked about a few classes ago. It was a question of whether such drastic transitions from stories of tragedy and grisly imagery to stories of less substantiality could be considered condescending. Thinking about it now, I don't think it does. It seems most days that I approach the newsstand, I'm staring point blank into a bloodied, sobbing face, a limp, lifeless body or an explosion in a street far off in another continent. The headlines are not always encouraging: "Swine flu Strikes," "Another 50 Dead in Bombing," "Monsoon Ravages the Philippines." I think if the entire frontpage were done up this way, I couldn't stand reading the paper.
The Obama administration made their fair attempts at their first major domestic emergency from websites to weekly addresses to Sesame Street characters, all that provided up-to-date information on H1N1. Obama was advised by some of President Ford's former health officials. Yet for all of his public education, his expectations were too high and too optimistic in regard to the availability of the vaccine.
In other news, NASA's gamma-ray race legitimizes Einstein's theory, 100 were killed in a Pakistan bombing, an American Marine Staff Sergeant was killed in Afghanistan, actor Matthew Broderick employs the help of prompts to remember his play lines and the King of Pop lives on through the debut of his documentary "This Is It."
The gruesome Pakistan bombing above the Matthew Broderick story got me to thinking about the composition of articles that we talked about a few classes ago. It was a question of whether such drastic transitions from stories of tragedy and grisly imagery to stories of less substantiality could be considered condescending. Thinking about it now, I don't think it does. It seems most days that I approach the newsstand, I'm staring point blank into a bloodied, sobbing face, a limp, lifeless body or an explosion in a street far off in another continent. The headlines are not always encouraging: "Swine flu Strikes," "Another 50 Dead in Bombing," "Monsoon Ravages the Philippines." I think if the entire frontpage were done up this way, I couldn't stand reading the paper.
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