Ukraine: Wash Post: pure propaganda
Richard Moore
least the NY Times admitted that the effects of the virus were quite
unlike those of H1N1, while the Post simply describes the outbreak
as H1N1 and leaves it at that. If you've been following what's
really happening in the Ukraine, then this article serves as a very
good example of how the mainstream media creates and propagates
mythology. And then future academics will quote this article as
fact.
rkm ________
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR20091120040
23.html
[cid:878DE37C-EB95-460A-B348-3401392BE7BF@home]<http://www.washingtonpost.com
/>
In Ukraine, H1N1 pandemic sets off panic and politicking Fear
pervades nation where government is mistrusted, health system is
weak
By Philip P. Pan Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, November
21, 2009
KIEV, UKRAINE -- One night at the height of the panic over what
people here call the California flu, as 24-hour news stations tracked
a rising death toll and politicians speculated about a mystery lung
plague, Ukraine's prime minister rushed to the airport to greet a
shipment of Tamiflu as if it were a foreign dignitary. Not to be
outdone, the president, a bitter political foe, dispatched a top
aide to meet the plane, too.
In neighboring Belarus, the government took an opposite tack,
accusing drug companies of fanning hysteria over swine flu to boost
profit. In Poland, the health minister is under fire for refusing
to stock up on a vaccine, while doctors in Hungary are resisting
orders to administer the shot. In Turkmenistan, the authorities
have been accused of covering up an epidemic, with infectious-disease
wards reportedly full and people being turned away.
As the pandemic H1N1 influenza surges with the onset of winter, the
nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union appear
particularly vulnerable to the deadly virus. Burdened with weak
health-care systems, relatively inexperienced news media outlets
and shaky governments that have little public trust, the region
also seems ripe for panic and political strife over the flu.
The potential for trouble is already on display in Ukraine, where
1.5 million of its 46 million people have had diagnoses of flu and
respiratory illnesses since the start of the outbreak and 356 have
died, according to the government. The World Health Organization
(WHO) suspects that most of the cases are swine flu, making Ukraine
among the hardest-hit countries in Europe, including
Russia<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/russia.html?nav=e
l>, Bulgaria, Moldova and Poland.
More telling than the numbers, however, has been the widespread
fear the virus has caused in Ukraine, and the outsize impact it has
had on the nation's political landscape.
In the weeks since Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced measures
against the spread of the flu -- shutting the nation's schools and
banning public gatherings -- anxious residents have overwhelmed
hospitals and pharmacies, buying up supplies of medicine, gauze
masks and home remedies such as lemons and garlic. Rumors have
proliferated that people are dying of a new, more lethal strain of
the virus.
Semyon Gluzman, a psychiatrist and Soviet-era dissident in Kiev,
said the fear was a rational response in a nation with a dysfunctional
health-care system and a corrupt, ineffective government. Hopes
soared in Ukraine after the mass pro-democracy demonstrations known
as the Orange Revolution, he said, but the five years of political
infighting since have undermined the public's faith in the nation's
leaders and political institutions.
"What we're seeing is a normal, psychological reaction to the
complete incompetence of the state authorities," he said. "People
are scared, and they don't know who to trust anymore."
Ukraine's news media -- which gained new freedoms after the Orange
Revolution -- have provided round-the-clock, often sensational
coverage of the outbreak.
The nation's leading politicians, meanwhile, are jockeying for
advantage ahead of the January presidential election, accusing one
another of exploiting the crisis by doing too much or endangering
lives by doing too little.
President Viktor Yushchenko, running far behind in his reelection
bid, accused the prime minister of failing to prepare for the
outbreak, saying that she left the national flu center staffed with
only one employee, put doctors in danger and allowed the H1N1 virus
to mutate into a "more aggressive" strain.
Aides floated the idea of postponing the election because of the
outbreak.
Tymoshenko, who was a Yushchenko ally in the Orange Revolution,
fought back, criticizing him this week for blocking $125 million
in emergency spending to fight the flu and saying he would be
"responsible for every person who is ill today or dies."
Tymoshenko, shown by the media touring hospitals, issuing instructions
and delivering daily updates on the outbreak, has enjoyed a dramatic
boost in the presidential race. One poll conducted last week put
her within three percentage points of Viktor Yanukovych, the
opposition leader and front-runner, after lagging far behind for
months.
Ukraine has one of the weakest health-care systems in Europe, being
a Soviet relic that has barely changed despite 18 years of independence.
Medical care is supposed to be free, but quality is poor, with
underpaid state doctors surviving by taking bribes and selling
unnecessary drugs. Life expectancy is a decade lower than in the
European Union.
The WHO says the beleaguered system has held up fairly well, because
advanced equipment or training isn't needed to fight swine flu. But
the organization also identified problems here that could arise
throughout Eastern Europe.
Doctors have been reluctant to treat patients with oxygen because
medical schools in the region emphasize the risk of oxygen poisoning,
for example.
Ukrainian hospitals also lack devices to measure blood oxygen levels
precisely, making it dangerous to put patients on ventilators, said
Simon Mardel, a member of the WHO team sent to help Ukraine.
More broadly, people often waited too long to see a doctor because
they tried home remedies first, and hospitals have struggled to
care for the severely ill because they admit too many mild cases,
said David Mercer, head of the communicable-disease unit in the
WHO's Europe office.
Conveying accurate information to the public is another challenge
in the region, he said. In some countries, especially the authoritarian
states of Central Asia, officials are accustomed to concealing
disease outbreaks, while in others, the free press is a relatively
new institution and media outlets dwell on conspiracy theories.
"It's like dealing with English tabloids all the time," Mercer said.
Yevgeny Komarovsky, a pediatrician and popular author in Ukraine,
said the media here so sensationalized the outbreak that "we should
also be counting casualties from heart attacks and high blood
pressure due to the panic." He recalled a five-hour television
special in which a series of ill-informed politicians were interviewed
instead of medical experts, calling it "a concentration of stupidity."
"I felt ashamed for my country," he said, noting that one presidential
candidate complained about shortages of an ointment with no proven
effect and another suggested that the plague had hit Ukraine.
One result of the mistrust in government is deep skepticism about
immunization in general and the swine flu vaccine in particular.
The sentiment is common in Eastern Europe and Russia, where people
express doubts about the safety of state supplies and suspicions
of corrupt deals with drug firms. But it is particularly intense
in Ukraine, with parents often paying doctors to falsify their
children's immunization records.
Confidence in even the WHO was shaken last year after the death of
a teenager who had received a measles shot during one of the
organization's immunization drives. The WHO said he died of meningitis,
but the opposition blamed the vaccine. Some Ukrainian experts
concurred, and a deputy health minister was arrested.
Many doctors accuse Ukraine's leaders of refusing to dispel the
public's vaccine concerns. Others say the fears are justified.
"You can afford the luxury of trusting your government and health
authorities," said Natalya Kolomiyets, a pediatric surgeon and
leader of an anti-vaccine group. "But here, in this country of
constant revolution, we can't."
Special correspondent John Pancake contributed to this report.
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