Govt right to front up on swine flu

It is remarkable that Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe is complaining that New Zealand was too upfront too soon about its swine flu cases and he even suggests that New Zealand has become "the poster child" for the influenza.

This is the same chief executive who was widely admired and praised for his swift and open response to the crisis last November when one of the airline's went down during a test flight in France with the tragic loss of seven lives.

Fyfe fronted his first press conference within hours of the disaster. He was compassionate about the families affected, he appeared to be completely frank about what he knew and what he didn't know, and what was happening next. It was a pattern he maintained for the days and weeks following and in doing so, he maintained confidence in the airline.

Questioned by Paul Holmes yesterday morning on TV One's Q+A about the damage that the swine flu story is having on Air New Zealand, Fyfe said:

"I think damage has been done because New Zealand got such a high profile and what we now realise is actually what was happening in New Zealand was happening in many many countries around the world but we put ourselves on the world stage I think unnecessarily a bit early...

"I think bringing awareness to the fact that this was moving around the globe was very important, I'm just not sure we had to be the poster child for swine flu moving around the world."

There can be no doubt that the news that New Zealand has confirmed cases of swine flu will be damaging to our tourism industry, at the very least, and damaging to Air New Zealand.

But that is no reason to have sat on the news. It was announced on Sunday night last week that a party of school students that had returned from Mexico on Saturday with symptoms were being kept in isolation while tests were undertaken.

There was no way a story like that could be overplayed. It was inherently sensational.

If the decision had been taken to keep that under wraps until the news was definite (Tuesday night) there was a strong risk it would have leaked.

That carried an even stronger risk of establishing a perception that the Government and its officials were in the habit of hiding important information. It is critical in times of potential crisis - as this was and still could be - for the Government and officials to have the trust and confidence of the people they are advising.

I was working in the Press Gallery at Parliament on Sunday last week when Health Minister Tony Ryall called the first of many press conferences last week to reveal New Zealand had suspected cases.

From Sunday through to Thursday I attended eight press conference, sometimes twice a day if the news was big enough.

While communications was by no means perfect, by and large Ryall and his officials did an excellent job.

It took a major adjustment on the part of the media to realise that these officials were willing to answer any question you gave them.

The media strategy is clearly part of their pandemic planning - engage with, be honest with, win the trust of the media (the public) as often as is required to convey important public health messages.

The Ministry of Health website posts regular updates on swine flu.

As of last night, the New Zealand stats were:

4 confirmed cases - unchanged since Saturday.

13 probable cases - up one since Saturday.

It also says there are 89 suspected cases (down 12 from 101 on Saturday) [people who have developed symptoms of influenza within seven days of having been in the areas of concern or are close contacts of cases and have flu-like symptoms.]

In total there are 360 people in isolation or quarantine and being treated with Tamiflu (up 91 from 269 on Saturday).

My colleague feature writer Catherine Masters explained in the Weekend Herald why there has been so much concern about the new strain of influenza even though most of the deaths have been confined to Mexico.

Audrey Young

 

A patient has her vital signs taken by doctors. Photo / AP