Before seatbelt laws were the standard, many reporters used to disclose whether a person who died in a car wreck had been wearing a seatbelt. Not out of a desire to shame the victims, as many families felt, but because it was relevant. Today the same debate rages about whether to disclose the vaccination status of someone who died from Covid-19. "In addition to family members being offended at perceived shaming and blaming, citizen vigilantes are now harassing the relatives of unvaccinated Covid-19 victims. That is forcing standards editors in newsrooms around the country to think through when and how to reveal that particular detail," Kelly McBride reports for Poynter.
McBride surveyed a few standards editors this week on the issue. None had come up with a formal guideline, but all were aware of the issue. "In general, journalists are leaning on the value of relevance as they decide whether to include vaccination status. It’s also helpful to think about like cases around public-health matters that might be relevant when reporting on a death," McBride reports.
"Clearly, the public is interested in the vaccination status of those who have died of Covid-19 because they seek to answer both noble and not-so-noble questions," McBride reports. "Given that journalists have no control over which mindset consumers carry as they approach a story about a person who had died of Covid-19, the best tool storytellers have is context."
She suggests several considerations in deciding whether or not to disclose, including the person's local prominence, the availability of data to illustrate a trend, and compassion.
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