Prevention Matters

New York City’s plan to provide free H1N1 vaccinations to elementary students was named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while the media’s lack of explanatory coverage of the health reform debate was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.


BEST

NYC Offers Kids Free H1N1 Vaccines
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/22070/

Any elementary school-age child in New York City can get a free swine flu vaccination under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to contain the deadly virus this fall and winter. Bloomberg and other city officials announced a multi-pronged strategy to fight a second, more serious wave of the virus that sickened hundreds of thousands, many in schools. Other elements of the city's plan include tracking influenza at emergency rooms and posting that and other data on a new flu Web site. The city will also produce a daily report on public school absenteeism and schools reporting five or more cases of flu-like illness.


WORST

Missing: Actual Explanation of Health Reform Issues
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/08/missing-actual-explanation-of-the-health-care-issue.php

A month-long review of The Washington Post’s front pages by The Pew Foundation’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found 72 percent of health-care stories were about politics, process or protests, rather than an explanation of proposals.