The World Health Organization no longer considers the COVID-19 pandemic a global health emergency, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a global health threat anymore. The global health toll is nearing seven million deaths, and new variants continue to emerge.
“[COVID-19] is still a major topic [in] global conversations, which is why you, as an individual journalist, should strive to continue to find creative ways to write about this pandemic,” said Paul Adepoju, community manager of ICFJ’s Global Crisis Reporting Forum.
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In a recent webinar, Adepoju discussed COVID-19’s impact today and shared ways in which journalists globally can continue informing their audiences about the virus.
Here are a few suggestions to get started and keep you on track:
Look at the data
Analyzing datasets can provide journalists with more than just infection or casualty numbers. In addition to cases and deaths, they can revisit vaccination efforts or travel restrictions and what’s resulted from them.
Open data sources, such as Our World in Data, can be useful for finding many different figures, Adepoju said. By searching for “coronavirus,” reporters can access customized, downloadable data to further analyze.
Data can help journalists identify trends, provide context and point toward gaps in coverage, especially when looking at data specific to a country or region. “The best stories are not stories that look at national estimates,” Adepoju said, but “stories that focus on the particular region, and actually zero in and tell that story from the local perspective.”
Zoom in on vaccination programs, trends and policy changes
Researching how vaccination programs are progressing globally can also provide insight for important stories on health equality.
The resource, Gavi, for instance, enables you to focus on specific countries or regions and identify whether vaccination rates have increased, decreased or remained steady overtime. Think about factors, such as misinformation, that have prevented people from getting vaccinated, too, Adepoju said.
Diving into what measures have proved to be more or less effective in containing the pandemic also allows for story opportunities. Keeping an eye on what governments and public officials have promised and actually accomplished adds to accountability, Adepoju added.
Current trends and debunking misinformation
The management of the pandemic and other health crises was a major topic at the latest meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, as leaders discussed why countries need to prioritize investing in health. Tracking what international organizations that have been involved with combating COVID-19 are currently doing can lead to story ideas, Adepoju suggested.
Conducting searches on social media can give journalists a pulse on where the public interest lies on COVID-19. However, journalists must always look at social media with a critical eye and make sure they are corroborating information with reputable sources, including health professionals, public health authorities and government officials, Adepoju said.
Go beyond COVID-19
Keep in mind other major impacts that COVID-19 has had on global health. As countries prioritized their responses to the pandemic, other health issues may have emerged.
For example, there are countries where other health programs and initiatives might have been suspended so that they could focus more on their pandemic responses, Adepoju said.
Identifying specific issues that were exacerbated during COVID-19, such as domestic violence and unemployment, is another avenue for reporting.
Follow the money
There shouldn’t be a shortage of money-focused stories around COVID-19, Adepoju noted: lots of financial information is public, including the loans some countries received during the pandemic.
The World Bank is a good source of information about loans obtained by countries. Its database lets you narrow down your search and focus on projects financing COVID-related initiatives. Adepoju suggested journalists identify where countries are borrowing money from and what for. This information can make for powerful accountability stories.
“You don’t have to know every detail about all the money that was borrowed,” Adepoju said. “You only need to take a closer look at just one of these finance pledges, and that makes a really good story.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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