New York City Fighting Influenza :: Journalism Influenza Health Essays

New York City Fighting Influenza New York City's public health officials are pioneering a program to reduce the spread of the influenza epidemic that hit the city over one month ago. The city's approach to disease control is unlike that of any other city in the nation and has been met with much criticism and fear for the lives of New Yorkers. The city's Health Commissioner, Dr. Royal S. Copeland, has refused to close schools, theaters, churches, and places of "public amusement" despite many requests to do so from prominent members of the government's medical community. Public health officials in Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, and Baltimore have taken such measures to reduce crowding--a known cause of the spread of disease. But according to Copeland, closing places of public amusement does not necessarily lessen the instance of physical contact among citizens. Rather, it displaces it and causes panic. (However, he does advise against attending dance halls.) In defending his position to keep schools open, Dr. Copeland commented, "Now how much better it has been to have those children under the constant observation of qualified persons than to close the schools, let the children run the streets and assemble when and where they would and if they get influenza to let them get it under conditions of which the Health Department had no knowledge and in which it was not prepared from the start to deal with the situation in the best way." Copeland went on to explain that the children are inspected from the start of the day and those who have symptoms are either sent home or to a hospital, depending on the caretaking conditions of their homes. Copeland also believes that the schools serve as places of educat ion about the epidemic for children who may also carry the information back to their parents. In response to this approach, former Health Commissioner, Dr. S. S. Goldwater, has announced that Copeland's plan is failing at the expense of the public. He said that the measures to exclude sick children from school are "lamentably weak" and that there is "almost criminal laxity" for carrying out education on the epidemic. Goldwater is currently working to get schools and theaters ordered closed to avoid the dangers that crowding brings. But Copeland's first concerns are ventilation, sanitation, and education. Therefore, theaters are used as centers of education and must remain open.