A/H1N1, the media and the framing effect.

My previous post was concerned with framing in relation to public statements and media coverage of the H1N1 - swine flu. It is an interesting subject to discuss, especially in terms of the psychological impact that the public debate has on the society. Dr Hardman constructed a comment that involved a plot which made me productive in regard to his observation: "Lord Drayson, recently suggested that the media have behaved quite responsibly in their coverage of H1N1 (swine flu)". In the context of Lord Drayson's suggestion I must present some constructive criticism.

Framing in my opinion is visible in the media coverage, especially in relation to H1N1. Maybe I am being a little bit oversensitive, but I do believe that language manipulations can lead to opinion-shaping. As I was watching news yesterday, journalists made following statements: "It is another death of a patient suffering from H1N1", "this was another death of a patient, who's been infected" or "another person died, who was confirmed to be H1N1 positive". What is important here is the fact that this information does not determine a definite cause of death. As in this abstract example: can someone be a national hero and a traitor at the same time? One general of a communist country was aware of the fact that the ruling party kills members of the opposition. Thus, he decided to betray the country - ruled by the communist government and turns to CIA/foreign generals for help. When it comes to H1N1, many patients simultaneously suffered from other diseases such as pneumonia. In some cases it had been clearly stated that pneumonia was the the cause of death, even though a flu virus was also present. A transparent statement would be the one, in which we would be clearly informed that the patient died 'from' the H1N1 or 'because of' the virus.

As far as Lord Drayson's suggestion is concerned, I try to investigate issues before presenting my beliefs. My criticism in this particular case comes from a potential coincidence related to his past. From the official BIS website (Department for Business Innovation and Skills) we know that: '(...) In 1993, he co-founded the vaccine company PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc in Oxford and was Chairman and Chief Executive until 2003. He floated PowderJect on the London Stock Exchange in 1997. Over ten years he built PowderJect into one of the world’s leading vaccine companies with operations in the UK, USA and Scandinavia, until selling it for £540 million in 2003".

One of the quality newspapers told us about what his company was producing: "(...) Drayson is chairman and chief executive of Powderject Pharmaceuticals, which makes many of the vaccines taken by children across Britain. His family stake in it is worth £105m. Among the products of Powderject's Evans Vaccines subsidiary are jabs for tetanus, flu, hepatitis B and the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis" (Guardian, Jan 2002).

In year 2003, Drayson decides to finalise the sale transaction: " Paul Drayson, the Labour donor and founder of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, will pocket more than £40m after agreeing to sell the company to US rival Chiron. (...) Mr Drayson used the company's highly-rated paper to acquire profitable vaccine companies while the market was excited by the device, and made the company into a major player in flu vaccines (...)" (Telegraph, May 2003).

Finally, Chiron is a company of a full name: 'Chiron a Novartis Business' and as some of you may know, Novartis is one of the greatest distributors and producers of new H1N1 vaccines and already has contracts with Germany (5.11.09) and Switzerland (12.11.09) .

To sum up, I am not trying to imply that Lord Drayson has a personal/profit-based reason to support the media in causing H1N1 panic within the society, as this would be a conspiracy theory based on unidentified evidence. Nevertheless, my analysis arises from the fact that most certainly he does have serious links to the industry, which may benefit from his attitute or decisions, taking his current political and governmental position into consideration.



References:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/ministers/lord-drayson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/jan/19/2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2852426/PowderJect-sale-nets-40m-for-Drayson.html

http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/index.shtml