Censorship Doesn't Just Stifle Speech — It Can Cause Disease To Spread 70
Lasrick writes "Maryn McKenna at Wired explores fears of a pandemic of MERS after October's hajj to Saudi Arabia, the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holy sites: 'The reason is MERS: Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease that has been simmering in the region for months. The virus is new, recorded in humans for the first time in mid-2012. It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it. And it is mysterious, far more so than it should be—because Saudi Arabia, where the majority of cases have clustered, has been tight-lipped about the disease's spread, responding slowly to requests for information and preventing outside researchers from publishing their findings about the syndrome.'"
Re:Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Need any more proof? (Score:5, Informative)
The Great Influenza by John M. Barrie goes into great detail how the war time censorship under the Wilson administration resulted in a significantly higher death toll in the US. The so called "Spanish flu" got its name because the Spanish press was not censored, the flu appears to have originated in western Kansas.
Sure it does. Consider the 1918 Flu Pandemic (Score:5, Informative)
Censorship never slows the spread of word where a disease is concerned, it only adds rumor into the mix, to create confusion.
Sure it does. A prime example is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and president Wilson's reaction to it.
Wilson and his administration saw news of the disease as promoting a public response that would hamper the war effort, and reporting it to be treason. So he had the government suppress the news and spread disinformation. Among the effects:
- The disease had shown up in one military camp. The commanding officer wanted to quarantine the camp to keep it from spreading throughout the military and the country. But his orders were countermanded from above. Result: Sick and incubating soldiers were shipped all over the country, spreading the disease.
- Disinformation about the nature of the disease, and how to treat it, was disseminated, using the Public Relations resources of the government, which drowned out more accurate statements from the medical community and others. This amounted to a set of government-created and broadly propagated health frauds, some of which persist today, causing those who believe them to waste money and impair their health. Among them is the theory of "autointoxication": that flu (or other disease) symptoms are the result of toxins produced by intestinal flora (if retained too long) and a resulting illusory need for "regularity" - having daily bowel movements at roughly the same time of day. To this day this theory results in laxative overuse and sometimes addiction, vitamin deficiencies, intestinal irritation, and delays in seeking medical attention when it is needed for a real illness.
So censorship CAN slow, or even suppress, the spread of word where a disease is concerned, bury the truth, and stop appropriate handling of a disease.
Re:Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up (Score:3, Informative)
Sulfa works for MRSA, as does doxycycline, clindamycin, vancomycin, zyvox, and a few others. It's called MRSA because it's resistant to penicillins, not because it's a "superbug" with magical powers that makes it immune to every antibiotic out there.
Sincerely,
Deuist, MD