Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
We’ve had a few loyal readers express their dismay at how WLOSers have blown up the story about some local high school students coming down with the MRSA virus. WLOSers stayed on the story for three days last week, and even invited a Mission Hospitals epidemiologist into the studio at noon so Victoria Dunkle could interview her at length.
WLOSers ramped up the fear factor and we have wondered if they’d gone too far. Here’s what one loyal reader wrote to us:
WLOS has taken a new low in their approach to journalism, if that’s possible. They have spent the last three days spreading absolute nonsense about this MRSA virus. What has infected these kids at TC Roberson and other Schools is a relatively harmless staph infection. It isn’t contagious. And there is only a slight chance of catching it if the wound is open. Yet they persist on drawing parallels between this bug and the “superbug” and generally trying to scare the crap out of people over nothing. My daughter goes to TC, and it has freaked out the students and parents, and turned those poor JV Football players into Typhoid Mary’s. If there is nothing going on to report, they ought to go to Claxton Elementary and do a story on sock puppets rather than spread this BS.
Honestly, we don’t know enough about the MRSA to say whether it’s something to really be worried about or not. MRSA has been around for a long time and mostly a concern in hospitals. We’ve fought it off. But now, we’re seeing antibiotic-resistant strains of the bug.
On the one hand, educating the public is a good thing. But freaking people out is not. There’s the media coverage issue. And there’s the school issue – do you think the schools properly notified everybody?
What do you guys think? Too much MRSA, or not enough?
Hey, A to the P: If people want to criticize the C-T, they can call the editor, call the reporter, write an "insta-letter," write a standard letter to the editor or post a comment on the story at the Web site.
But where’s the forum to critique WLOS?
They have chosen not to have one, other than allowing viewers to call up and complain to some intern or overworked producer who really doesn’t give a crap about anything other than getting through another night and several mediocre broadcasts.
You’d think they never make a mistake, if you go by the number of corrections they issue. Next to none!
I prefer not to watch the local news most nights, but I don’t think you need to be dissing Ashvegas for providing a forum of his choosing on what they report.
His blog, his rules. Sheesh.
To start, MRSA is a bacteria not a virus. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, basically meaning its staph that antibiotics like methicillin, flucloxacillin, erythromycin and cephalosporins can’t kill. Stuff like mupirocin and vancomycin can kill it though. I worked at a hospital where it was not unusual at all to have a patient or two on the unit with it, and who knows how many others were carriers. Every patient admitted to our surgical floor it was part of protocol to get a nasal swab done on them to culture and test for MRSA because if they carried it they were at higher risk of having their surgical wound be infected by it. Lots of people carry MRSA around in their noses and bodies, its just another bacteria of literally hundreds that live on us all the time, it only becomes a problem usually if you are immunocompromised or it sets up camp in a cut. People are scared of MRSA? They need to be FAR more scared of their fat asses developing heart disease or having a stroke.
The poster was wrong. The cases in these two schools WERE MRSA. That’s a fact.
I read it in YOUR paper, which means you knew better, and still posted that comment.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771018120
Incidentally, the paper has done five stories in the last week about the same thing with very similar language.
Dirty pool sir. Dirty Pool.
If you’re afraid, you’ll watch. Let’s scare everyone to death and not really get to the bottom of the story.
Like Mountain Man said, "wash your hands".
Media likes to "beat the dead horse" on a big story. And I also agree 100% with Paul, it’s why the media has almost no credibility.
If the parent would just do a little checking she would see how MRSA has affected school systems in Winston Salem and Charlotte, how it killed a student in Virginia, and that the Journal of the American Medical Association came out last week and said the newest strains of MRSA have risen at an alarming rate and prove fatal if not treated. She would also see Mission Hospital’s claim they’ve had a major increase in community aquired MRSA in the general population.
And then there’s the FACT that MRSA has become immune to traditional antibiotics and will essentially shut down your vital organs if you don’t get it treated in the early stages. What WLOS told everyone, again and again, as the story has also remained a top story nationally for more than a week, is that it’s treatable if caught early and there are simple precautions you can take to stop you or your child from getting it. So, parent, where is the "nonsense" part of all this. WLOS, as do all news outlets, have a responsabilty to inform the public about public health issues. Would you rather have them ignore the story until another child dies or until another school system is closed down completely. Ask yourself this, how many cases have been avoided because every school system in the mountains has taken extra steps to stop MRSA from contaminating students because of the coverage News 13 provided. Perhaps you live in such isolation that you don’t read credible medical journals, listen to health experts, don’t watch national news or read newspapers. Perhaps that’s why you sound ignorant. And perhaps your child is bit safer because others aren’t as ignorant as you.
I have family who is in the medical community and MRSA if not taking care of my taking simple steps of good personal hygene can be a serious thing. I watched the interview Victoria did with the lady from MSJ Hospiptals and that IMO was responsible reporting. But I agree with the complaint that after a couple days they should quit making it a top priority on the newscasts.
And this is why corporate media loses so much street credibility. They hype stories like this because their main focus isn’t on serving the community – but getting a large audience to sell to advertisers.
At this point, if I want to know what’s going on in my community I check Xpress and the blogosphere.