Media can help slow spread of disease, study finds

A mathematical study of how infectious diseases spread has demonstrated a surprising link between the progress of an outbreak and the way that outbreak is portrayed in the media. The study suggests that when public health officials are speaking to reporters about an outbreak, they should include information about the rate at which a disease is spreading and not just the total number of cases in a population. The study’s authors say that in a real-world situation, effective media communication could delay the peak of an outbreak by days or weeks, buying crucial time for health agencies to respond. “It’s a really interesting result,” said Abba Gumel, a professor of mathematical biology at Arizona State University who was not involved in the study. “It shows that the quality of media coverage, especially during the early stages of an outbreak, is really important.” To quantify that importance, researchers led by Jianhong Wu, director of...