Bed bug education disaster

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Renee Corea

This is sad. Take a look at the residents of the Cole Manor Apartments in Springfield, Ohio (Clark County) walking out of an educational meeting set up by health department officials in this August 19 story from WDTN Channel 2:

What is going on here? The health department is trying to help—how I wish our own health department visited public housing buildings in the city to deliver bed bug education—and something has gone wrong. I see fear and distrust.

But, well, look at how this story has been framed.

These are two earlier stories about the same building, August 16 and August 17. And here are two Springfield News-Sun stories about the building: one about the resident who was found to be living with an advanced infestation, with the Clark County environmental health director saying, “We took eight to 10 bedbugs off his body.” And this one about the disastrous meeting.

I hope you see what I see. I feel sorry for the health officials in Clark County, but the people of Clark County are not served by these stories, because they stigmatize people with bed bugs. Who is going to talk about bed bugs in rational, constructive ways in Clark County when they see this on their local news?

And if you think bed bugs are only found in multi-unit buildings, or in public housing complexes, in large cities, I strongly recommend that you think again, because bed bugs are prevalent in the suburbs and in small towns, but you will never, ever see anyone passing on photographs of such infestations to reporters.

These pages may be of related interest:

  1. John Jay’s bed bug “condition”
  2. Franklin County October Bed Bug Summit, notes from OPCA
  3. The Smiths get bed bugs: HPD’s bed bug course
  4. Landlord education (somewhere else): “be a resource for your tenants”
  5. Bed bugs not a problem in schools? Respectfully disagree

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2 Responses to Bed bug education disaster

  1. Jessica says:
    August 27, 2009 at 1:09 am

    For once, I am speechless.

    Really.

  2. Renee Corea says:
    August 27, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    I know. It’s really…

    I guess I’m reluctant to offend people who are clearly well-meaning. But if we have to spell it out, if it’s not clear why we’re so sad about this, the educators need to be educated themselves, and everyone should stop giving reporters such an invitation to sensationalize. On a minor it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-so-sad note, stop saying things like we need to deny bed bugs (“the critters” in this story) what they need most, as if they were cockroaches. Cut to the health dept person saying that what they need is blood. Please get real, and get savvy, quickly.