Flu pandemic handbook to be distributed to households soon
“And to increase the level of awareness and preparedness among Singaporeans, the government will be providing a million households with a handbook listing the do’s and don’ts in a flu pandemic from the end of this month.”
… “The flu pandemic handbook, which is available in all 4 official languages, includes inputs from some 11 government ministries and agencies, with simple tips on hygiene and precautions you can take in the event of a flu pandemic” … “The government spent about a million dollars to publish this handbook”
Me: Hyperventilates at the thought of the amt of trees killed, amt of ink wasted and the negligible effect this will have.
There’s Dumb. And There’s Pointless. This is dumb AND pointless. Can’t they like do something better with 1 mil? Like donate to starving African kids???
i don’t quite follow your line of thought.. how is publication of handbooks thus ensuring households nationwide be aware and alert, a dumb and pointless?
Comment by dawn — April 9, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
The handbooks is essentially a compilation of commonsensical stuff on hygiene, and is likely to be like the SARS booklet which was given out during the SARS period. Essentially teaching us all to, um wash your hands and stuff. Its akin distributing phamplets telling pple not to jaywalk, not to litter etc. The effect, if any is negligible. If people practise proper hygience, they will do so nothwithstanding the booklet, which i find an inefficient means of achieving the ends. At least a television promotion is likely to have more reach. But ultimately, the people who can read, are likely to be those who don’t need the advice. It is most likely those who are illiterate, or only conversant in dialect, the old etc,who may not have the necessary info on flu. In other words, the people who can read won’t need the booklet, and the people who need the booklet probably can’t read/understand.
A TV campaign will have wider reach, and is not so environmentally unfriendly. Simply put, imagine that you are a policymaker and you have $1 mil to spend, and the best you can do is to distribute handbooks to a million households? Could the $1 mil be better spent on charity? On Vaccines? On an advertising blitz?
Comment by nevinyrral — April 9, 2006 @ 3:12 pm