FluPortal.org

WFCR’s Focus Western New England will be airing an hour-long H1N1 call-in special tomorrow at 4:00 pm ET. Producer Jill Kaufman spoke with me about the challenges of putting together a regional swine-flu program.

WFCR, Kaufman pointed out, is in the somewhat unusual position of serving an area (western New England) made up of several states: parts of MA, CT, VT, NH, and even NY. She explained that for a story like H1N1, this complicates things. Why? Because each state has a distinct local public-health infrastructure.

She gave me a specific example. Massachusetts, she said, “has roughly 350 municipalities, and almost each one has its own little public-health department. These departments deal with the state, and the state deals with CDC.” In Connecticut, in contrast, “the smaller towns are in health districts, so in dealing with the state, they’re doing it as a coalition.”

That variation means that many aspects of the story — like the distribution of vaccine — may unfold very differently in communities that are physically close together. It also means that WFCR reporters and producers count extra legwork to stay on top of swine-flu developments in five separate states. Kaufman did note, though, that because state and local public-health officials get their “marching orders from DC,” there are lots of similarities, too.

Kaufman says the show will explore some aspects of the state differences — like whether it even makes sense to draw state and town boundaries for a pandemic disease — but will focus more broadly on ethical questions: Are public-health campaigns stirring up too much or not enough fear? Does the federal government effectively have new controls over state policy because of the national emergency? How should schools and religious institutions and employers handle the outbreak?

This morning, Kaufman found out that her main studio guest, a public-health nurse, cannot be on the show tomorrow — because her three kids all came down with flu. The medical director at the nurse’s health center (currently healthy) is going to fill in for her. Kaufman suggested, half-kidding, that pubmedia stations consider asking guests — and producers! — to stay home and hook in by phone during a pandemic.

You’ll be able to listen to WFCR’s swine-flu special here, live. It will be hosted by Tina Antolini. Fred Bever is the executive producer. The audio will be archived here after the show.