China is winning the sweepstakes this month in the category of “contagious-disease news,” bringing us a bouquet of monkeypox, bird flu, and human metapneumovirus (HMPV) stories. Bring on the clicks, net surfers.
“China has recently discovered a monkeypox virus outbreak.”
“China reports infections from H9N2, H10N3 avian flu.”
“HMPV outbreak: How it’s SOARING in the ‘super-spreader’ under-5-year-olds…who are most at risk of serious illness.”
Urgent: nothing to report
Chinese HMPV stories are spreading fastest, with their tendrils reaching out for American concern: “Weekly CDC data since January 2024 shows nearly 28,000 Americans have been sickened with human metapneumovirus (HPMV), a previously little-known respiratory illness dubbed ‘the most important virus you’ve never heard of.’ ”
HMPV may be unheard-of for several good reasons. Such as: “There are no distinguishing symptoms of HMPV that differentiate it from the other myriad respiratory viruses.” Also: HMPV “is a common respiratory virus that causes respiratory infections (like colds and coughs).” And: “serological studies have shown that it has existed in humans for more than 60 years and is distributed all over the world.” Finally: “most children will have been infected with HMPV by the time they are aged five.”
Were you ever a child younger than age five? (Be honest.) Then you likely have been infected. This may be a form of mild cold. How it can be diagnosed in the absence of “no distinguishing symptoms” is a mystery of its own.
The story appears to have originated in social media. “Frightening videos show patients coughing at the hospitals amid a spike in respiratory illness.” “Social media posts have alleged an alarming increase in fatalities, with people aged 40 to 80 being the most affected.” “The cascading impact of respiratory illnesses attributed to multiple viruses, including HMPV, influenza A, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Covid-19, was brought to public attention through various posts on social media platforms.”
And so it’s off to the races.
Empty calories
As with so much journalism today, a social media post or video becomes the source of a full-blown but largely under-researched corporate media story which is then picked up by similar outlets, television news, etc., until there are all these puffs of cotton candy for sale in the “news” carnival.
An interesting feature of this particular round of “pandemic” reporting is the divided themes of most of the stories. The possibilities are frightening, you see, but the authorities say little danger.
Take, for example, an HMPV outbreak in China that has sparked “global concern, prompting countries like India to closely monitor the virus and its transmission…. On Saturday, the Indian Health Ministry held a meeting to review the growing number of cases. However, authorities maintain that there is currently no reason for alarm.”
In the same vein, we are told that “Jill Carr, a virologist in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, Australia, said the situation is ‘very different to the Covid-19 pandemic, where the virus was completely new in humans…and spread to pandemic levels because there was no prior exposures or protective immunity in the community.’ ”
So the stories contain a scare element (clickbait) and then reassurance (payoff in relief). Is this good business? We’ll see if it continues.
An alert reader going through the new China virus reporting will notice something odd. In general—and this is obvious—the stories are thin and light on sources, especially Chinese sources that might comment on Chinese events. Assuming they even tried, the writers are unable to engage with communist authorities. The absence of such sources is masked by stand-ins and pseudo sources.
Most often, writers quote a foreign authority in lieu of a Chinese source.
We can’t blame the foreign source for the result. He or she is probably innocently answering some journalist’s question, little expecting to be the stand-in for Chinese experts in a news story. Do a search for “China flu” and check this out for yourselves.
Pseudo sources
Another trick is to use pseudo sources. For instance: “Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization have not raised concern or declared any emergency.”
The passive or absent Chinese authorities have here become a source by not becoming a source. They have been dragged into the fray by not engaging—not raising concerns—not declaring an emergency—not doing anything at all. Chinese authorities have not raised concerns. It’s almost as if they are actively discouraging concerns.
We don’t need to believe the words of a Beijing spokesman or a state medical worker. But if the picture is real, they are a part of it. They must be part of the report without trickery or substitution.
So we have stories about an epidemic in China originating in social media, spreading in poorly sourced legacy-media reports, delivering low-value or no-value “news” on what could be very important developments.
Is something going on in China? What is the disease doing? What is China doing?
If this month’s reporting is any indication, the next pandemic originating in China will kill us all before the news delivers fact one. □
James Roth works for a major defense contractor in Virginia.
