Since it’s finals week, I’m going to keep this post short and to the point. Conveniently enough, that’s exactly what Twitter is made for.
- The CDC’s emergency Twitter feed (@CDCemergency) JUST announced that they have isolated the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu – this is great news because it means we should have a vaccine ready by next winter, when flu season starts up again and we’re more at risk of a pandemic (it’s warming up now so it’s harder for flu viruses to spread).
Good news.
- Another great Twitter account to follow is @Veratect – professionals in the field have been following it for a steady stream of the latest reported cases of swine flu around the world.
Of course, in the case of emergencies and the Internet (and Twitter, especially), there’s always the problem of separating valid information from rampant speculation and plain misinformation. My response to the argument that Twitter only serves as a medium for noise: the fact that Twitter functions as a community where people can @reply others and link to trusted news sources allows for a self-policing of information. If someone says something false or misleading, there’s a strong chance that another Twitter user will address this person and provide accurate information. Twitter by itself is never the best source for news – it’s the best source for linking to other sources and for facilitating conversation.
- In any case, this “Swine Flu Online: Panic and Bad Information” article gives a great rundown of the good, the bad, and the racist when it comes to swine flu talk on Twitter.
Hm, did I say this was going to be a short post? This InSTEDD resource, Trackernews.net, is also amazing – aggregates lots of different articles/sites for swine flu information
Thank you for the kind words about TrackerNews.net! My name is Janet and I am its editor.
In addition to the links on the aggregator, there is also a TrackerBlog, you might find interesting. I have been covering disease outbreak stories for some time and there’s quite a bit more than has hit the headlines with this one (http://www.TrackerBlog.instedd.org — look for “Follow the Pigs” “A Virus by Any Other Name” and “Rating Pandemics”)
The swine flu was the first time all the links on TrackerNews were devoted to a single story. Usually it’s a mosaic of grouped links about a variety of stories focusing on health issues, humanitarian work and technology that supports both, which makes for a rather eclectic page.
Also, fyi, every story (which includes news, research, blogs, doccies, etc.) is also part of a seachable database. We’re getting better at tagging, and each day the archive gets that much deeper and richer.