Lab 1 – Responding to Health Stories

Photo Credit: Ryan Millier

When I hear ‘health stories’ in reference to journalism, I first think of articles talking about yoga, benefits of various ‘superfoods’ and, of course, articles documenting the work being done to create a vaccine for COVID-19. The Center For Health Journalism does show you a bit of that – but what it shares more of surprised me.

The Center for Health Journalism, or CHJ for short, showcases journalistic stories about public health. To me, public health always seemed to have a pretty direct definition – that being the health of the public and things we can do to improve it. After reading a few of CHJ’s articles, however, I realized that ‘public health’ is really a much bigger umbrella term for a lot of things we may not even immediately think of.

The first thing I read was an article about how the current wildfires on the west coast are impacting the homeless communities in the Bay Area. It immediately struck me that the subject of the article was something I had never even considered. The wildfires that started recently in Oregon have garnered national coverage for turning the skies red and orange as well as creating some of the worst air pollution in the entire world. We hear and read plenty about how people are evacuating due to this – but what about the people that have nowhere to go? This article was about them.

People with no supplies or shelter to deal with the smoke and smog from the fires are being exposed to it at all times. That is a health crisis – yet one I never would have thought of or spotted on mainstream news. The aftermath of a respiratory pandemic and prolonged exposure to some of the worst air quality on Earth for these homeless communities is an alarming and grim thought.

This issue is a true public health crisis worthy of coverage and relief efforts. The fact that I have neither seen nor read anything else about it on any other news platform is truly disheartening. That said, it has given me a new appreciation and understanding of what health journalism is and why we so desperately need it.

Public health involves the wellbeing of all people from all walks of life, and as journalists – particularly journalists with an interest in health – it is our duty to share important stories like these and shed light on issues the public may not be aware of.