Shining examples
In contrast to the current Warning Season epidemic of unfounded health scares and alarmist or preachy 'education' campaigns, two initiatives stand out as useful and sensible.
First is the Department of Health's advertising campaign to persuade people to take their minor coughs and colds to the chemist, rather than to already overworked GPs and A&E departments.
Second is the Brooke Advisory Centre's provision of free emergency contraception to teenagers – a pragmatic response to the inevitable unprotected sexual encounters which will occur during the extended Christmas and Millennium celebrations.
These are realistic damage-limitation exercises which represent rational, practical anticipation of genuine problems. A glance at SIRC's Media Watch 'panics and scares' column, however, suggests that GPs and hospitals will not have much time to be grateful for these isolated outbreaks of sanity, as they will be busy dealing not only with real illness and disease but with the victims of irresponsible scaremongering.
