- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec12/cough_08-22.html
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/08/losing-a-baby-to-whooping-cough-one-mothers-story-1.html
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/08/whooping-cough-outbreak-cdc-answers-your-questions.html
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/multimedia/20120816-pertussis/#2007
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Aug 16, 2012 – Aug. 24, 2012
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
These reports by the PBS NEWSHOUR health team cover the worst U.S. whooping cough outbreak in more than half a century. They include an extensive broadcast report on infant vulnerability, a feature that allowed the public to ask questions of public health officials, a feature on a family that lost a child to the disease, and several informative graphics.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
We began by contacting the Centers for Disease Control and confirming the states most impacted by this year’s whooping cough outbreak — New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Washington state. The latter was the only state to declare an official epidemic, so we planned our reporting trip there. We then focused our research, particularly on pertussis, reasons for this year’s heightened outbreak, why the bacteria seems to be evolving, the efficacy of the vaccine (both for children and a new form for adults), and how public health officials are responding to this old epidemic that’s presenting new challenges in the U.S.
Explain types of human sources used.
The basis of this story is a scientific one, so our team traveled to Atlanta to interview the CDC’s top official at CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases about the current state of the outbreak, the efficacy of the vaccine, what public health officials are doing on a state-by-state basis and what families can do to protect themselves and those most at risk — newborns. We also traveled to Olympia, Wash., to interview the state Secretary of Health and to the town of Everett to get a ground-level view of a whooping cough prevention campaign. But the heart of this story goes far deeper. This is a disease that can kill otherwise healthy babies within a matter of days. Before our trip to Seattle, we spent more than a week finding a mother who lost her baby to the disease last year and convincing her, through relatives, to talk with the NewsHour because we would give her story the air-time and thoughtful approach it deserves. In the end, she opened her home, heart and photo albums to our cameras. Finally, we traveled to Vashon Island in Puget Sound, where a community debate about the efficacy of the pertussis vaccine has been raging for years. We sat down separately with two mothers — former friends torn apart by the heated nature of the controversy — who shared their perspective in detail.
Results:
A wide array of family wrote to the NewsHour thanking us for this segment — saying that they had no idea whooping cough was still a threat or that a new adult vaccine was available. Others said it prompted them to further explore the issue or to have their families vaccinated. In the days after the piece aired, the NewsHour partnered with the CDC to answer lingering questions. The response to that post — from the number of questions submitted to traffic from those hoping to read the CDC’s answers — was overwhelming.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections were necessary.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
A compelling human story is always the most important element to a story like this. No matter how many statistics we used, the danger of whooping cough — and the viewpoints on both sides of the vaccination debate — could not have been expressed better than by the mothers grappling with this issue on a very personal level.