The camera doesn’t doesn’t lie. The stuffed characters behind the head of government in COVID news conferences are always on. Who are those people standing behind the newsmaker at press conferences? I see them in the hallways of legislatures when the party leader is making an announcement. I see them in a studio behind the
Most often I ad lib on radio and TV or in newspaper interviews. But, in the back of my mind is former CBS TV anchor Walter Cronkite’s old quote that there’s no such thing as an ad lib. There might be a turn of a phrase you’ve never made in that exact way, but you
Crises make for strange bedfellows. It took the COVID-19 pandemic to forge a bond between journalists and epidemiologists. These two occupations have little in common. Journalist detest jargon and are admonished by editors for wordy prose. Epidemiologists publish in medical and scientific journals using the jargon and terminology of their profession. They may present scientific
“Pandemics are a magnifying glass that sheds light on social conditions,” says May-Brith Ohman Nielsen, professor of history at the University of Agder in Norway. Pandemics lay bare the failures of a country’s organization and capacity that went unnoticed during uneventful times. Conflicting policies, staff vacancies, purchase orders for the wrong items, a lack of
With the COVID-19 pandemic dominating our headlines and collective consciousness, it’s easy to forget some basic food safety that could potentially impact our health much more than the coronavirus. Allan Bonner takes Just a Minute to remind us of this important tip.
How do we become overdue for a random event like a pandemic like novel coronavirus (COVID-19)? Once a pathogen emerges, how do modern societies give it new ways to flourish and spread? In this look back, Allan Bonner sits down with Dr. Ian Crandall and Maire Percy, Professor Emeritus, to discuss what the risks are,