Media may be ‘missing the point’ in covering Zika outbreak: Professor who studies vaccination policy says international Zika scare is concerning, but Canadian healthcare system can handle it

Coverage of the recent Zika virus outbreak in Brazil and its cases of Canadian infections have been featured prominently in the media. However, the media may be missing the point, says a University of Alberta professor.

With the Zika virus making headlines, alarm is being raised about the spread and health consequences of the disease, with the virus’ link to microcephaly— smaller heads in newborns — and the number of Canadian cases being the focus of some of the media’s coverage.

But the alarm that is being raised may not be proportional to the threat Zika poses to Canadians according to Ubaka Ogbogu, an Assistant Professor cross-appointed to the Faculties of Law and Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, who does research on vaccination policy. For Obogu, coverage of the Zika virus, so far, been more responsible than the coverage on the Ebola virus, but he said he found it lacking in certain respects.

“With the Ebola outbreak and epidemic, what the media did emphasize was how Canada was handling the epidemic and Canada didn’t react in a way that was rational,” Ogbogu said.

In 2014, Canada responded to Ebola by suspending visa applications for residents from affected countries along with stricter border screening measures. Ogbogu called these measures “overkill,” and that they “did not contribute to the effort to eradicate the disease.”

But while he wouldn’t call the coverage on the Zika virus “hysterical,” Ogbogu said he believes that the coverage of epidemics such as the Zika virus, Ebola or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the emphasis on the number of Canadians affected, have missed the greater point that these diseases needed to be dealt with at the source, and not when they finally spread to North America.

“The hysteria comes from not having a global focus when it comes to disease,” Ogbogu said. “When you don’t, ultimately, it’s going to show up and you’re going to freak out. That happened with SARS. That happened with Ebola.”

First identified in 1947 in a rhesus monkey in the Zika forest near Entebbe in Uganda, the Zika virus has previously affected countries in Africa and Asia between 1951 and 1981 prior to the recent outbreak in South America. For Ogbogu, this shows how approaches to epidemics are lacking, saying that “if it was dealt with in Africa, it wouldn’t have made it to Brazil.”

“If three people have the Zika virus in Canada, our healthcare system can handle it,” Ogbogu said. “It is largely inconsequential in my opinion. It is concerning, but very inconsequential and that is what the media is focusing on.”