Mona Safarty, MD, MPH

Dear Colleagues,

As I write this, Hurricane Irene is thankfully dissipating.  My family spent a good part of the night putting the water vacuum to use keeping the flooding in the basement from causing lasting damage.  The drainage trench we put in last year just wasn’t enough for this unprecedented climate system.  After another striking example like Irene, it is hard not to wonder at the continuing lack of references to climate change that characterizes national news coverage.  This has held true through one weather calamity after another this year.  By the time you receive this, the “24 Hours of Reality” event (Sept. 14) sponsored by The Climate Reality project will have been observed around the world.  Hopefully, many people in the United States will be exposed to it.   

This is the first newsletter since the APHA June mid-year meeting in Chicago.  At that meeting, we were provided with polling evidence that demonstrates the support the American public feel for prevention and preventive services.  We were reminded about

the importance of campaigning amongst our own members — and to the rest of the country —about the value of the Affordable Care Act (health reform) with its special emphasis on prevention and the resources it is providing to address obesity, tobacco use, physical activity and chronic disease.  We committed to sharing this understanding widely.        

Unfortunately, sharing insight and solid information outside of membership circles like APHA has become theoretically easier but practically more difficult.  The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in the mid-1980s is one factor.  The 25-year history of consolidation of the news media is another.  While outlets like the Equal Health Network and other reliable sources seek to provide direct access to primary sources of information, the major news networks do a very poor job of providing information to the American people, 65 percent of whom get their information from TV news programs.   The five or so corporate owned media channels have become tied into narrow, self interest, or risk averse in their coverage, or slavishly dedicated to serving specific ideologies.  The result is a poorly informed electorate that is all too easily swayed by manipulative advertising campaigns.  These are often slanderous and built on big lie techniques.  I saw this first hand in Pennsylvania during the last election season.  While this is surely a time of transition for communication and information sharing, those of us who can see what has happened should spread the word so that others become aware of this threat to democratic institutions and mobilize to preserve the legacy of responsible evidence-based reporting.  There are other significant factors, but the role of the media is pivotal and often ignored.

The Medical Care Section has a terrific program planned for the Annual Meeting this year in Washington, D.C.  I look forward to seeing you there.