# 2995
Yesterday I ran a blog entitled Arabic Press Coverage Of Recent Egyptian Bird Flu Cases, part of which addressed the dubious allegations made in an opposition paper that 27 cases of bird flu had been `covered up’ by the Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry immediately issued a denial, and I pointed out that it was likely – given the volume of suspect cases that get tested in that country – that the real story involved `suspect cases’, not confirmed cases.
We should remember that only about 1% of the suspect cases that they’ve tested have turned out to have the H5N1 virus.
Today, Zeinobia – who writes the Egyptian Chronicles – brings us a closer look at the controversy, and reaffirms that these `27 cases’ were simply `suspect cases’. She describes these newspaper allegations as `silly and unscientific talk’, which I think is pretty accurate.
A Hat tip to Crof at Crofsblog who posted on this overnight.
Suspicion does not mean Confirmation
I do not know what to say except that I have been worried since I read the headlines of Al Wafd newspaper in the front page.
“The ministry of health hided 27 H5N1 human infection cases in 3 days !!”
Do not be shocked because inside you will find that Al Wafd newspaper claims that it has documents proving that the ministry of health had hided 27 H5N1 suspected infection cases in 3 days !! So all those 27 cases are suspected and were not declared to be H5N1 positive.
This is silly and unscientific talk because from now and then we read in the newspapers about suspected cases across the country especially that the symptoms of H5N1 may start as severe flu.
The newspaper continues describing the spread of the disease as alarming and that there would be a cabinet meeting to discuss the situation .
Dangerous allegation to the health ministry for sure ; already it has not passed 24 hours when it issued a quick press release denying these allegations.
(Continue . . . )
Although we spend a great deal of time looking for, translating, and trying to interpret news items published from around the world, we do so with the knowledge that sometimes these news reports are inaccurate.
Sometimes these inaccuracies stem from a political bias or agenda of the news source, and sometimes they just crop up due to mistakes or misunderstandings on the part of the reporter.
In this case, the allegations were `wild enough’ to evoke suspicion, but sometimes the inaccuracies are more plausible.
All of which points out the need to take all news reports, regardless of the source, with a grain of salt.
All one has to do is remember back to some of the stories broadcast on practically every national news outlet about the carnage inside the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina to know just how out of hand reporting can get.
For days we heard stories of rapes and murders, and scores of bodies, inside that make-shift shelter.
The reality was only 6 people died inside the dome. Of those, 4 were from natural causes, 1 from an overdose, and 1 committed suicide.
There were no murders inside the dome.
Of course, to this day, many people believe the rumors . . .not the reality.
Monday, September 26, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated
By BRIAN THEVENOT and GORDON RUSSELL
Newhouse News Service
<Excerpt>
That the nation's frontline emergency-management officials believed the body count would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the news media and even some of the city's top officials, including the mayor and police superintendent.
The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees — mass murders, rapes and beatings — have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.
Even well meaning reporters can get things wrong, and when you add in the `signal loss’ that can occur during translation (either machine or human), the old adage Caveat Lector comes into play.
Let the Reader Beware.
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