Gonzo Journalism Gone Awry

In his column in The Compass last week, columnist Bill Westcott laments the fact the panic over the swine flu was unnecessary. While there is no doubting that it was not as nearly as bad as predicted, the government reacted proactively and on the advice of medical experts.

What bothers me about Westcott’s column is his statement that in the province,“only 18 people died” and there were “only 267 hospitalizations”. He goes on to reference more numbers – always a sign of a weak argument. Here's a link to his column.

I added a comment, which has yet to appear, so I’ll post it here.

But one other thing. The Compass is a good newspaper - very good in my opinion. (Unlike some other community-based rags around these parts, but that’s a post for another time). But having hacks like Westcott does nothing for its credibility.

''Was the panic of H1N1 overblown?'' Without a doubt. But I think the media was largely responsible for this.

However, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If the government – both federal and provincial - were not proactive they would have been blamed for sitting idly by and facing the possibility of an epidemic. And lets be honest, the government was reacting to advice and dire warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) - among others.

So yes, the media and subsequently the public, may have jumped the gun and all the panic was for naught, but we were all dealing with the unknown here. And we were scared. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback in March, well after the fact. Last fall, no one - you, health authorities or governments could definitively predict what might have happened. Thus, the ''overreaction''.

And if you are okay with ''only 18 deaths attributed to H1N1'' and the measly ''267 hospitalizations'',  that says a lot more about you then anyone else could.

Try telling that to the families and friends of those affected. I suspect if you had gotten sick or god forbid, lost a family member, the theme of your article would have been much different.

Perhaps that’s something you can keep in mind before you try to rational your argument with numbers such as only 18 deaths and only 267 hospitalizations. That may seem statistically insignificant to you, but try telling that to the families of those who have experienced it.