Distorted Alarms: The Epidemic Narrative and the Media Story - The 2009-10 Swine Flu in the Portuguese News

In April 2009, a new strain of influenza subtype H1N1 emerged due to the rearrangement of two RNA segments. The strain incorporated two segments of the genome of porcine origin and was officially designated as A/California/4/2009/H1N1. In June 2009, alarmed by the infection’s progress, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the “level six” of the geographical progression scale for epidemics and kept it at that level until August of the following year. The Portuguese media activated the public health alarm and integrated it into its agenda, but the volume and severity indicators of the news coverage did not correspond to the epidemiological indicators of progression. This paper describes how two narratives with different rhythms for the swine flu pandemic de facto emerged.