When it comes to an emerging contagion, it’s often difficult for the news media to deliver a balanced message. Inflammatory health scares are generally not the fault of a public health official trying to provide the facts but the media megaphoning said facts and using the official for hyped soundbites.
Never has that been truer than with the current rise of the Zika virus in the Americas. With Zika, it is hard to comprehend the extent of the threat because it is a virus that causes little or no symptoms in the vast majority of people who acquire it from a mosquito bite, and yet at the same time it carries the rare risk of birth defects, especially those involving the brain. Pictures of afflicted babies are what garner attention, not the multitude of Zika sufferers who get better without complications.
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