Swine flu

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Snapshot

Say to students that you are going to show them some photographs. Their initial task is to link this first picture to a recent news item.

They can begin this by focusing on two key questions:

• what is the person pictured doing?
• where was the photograph taken?

Invite students to work out the riddle of the picture. What kind of operation needing protective gear might be taking place in a school or nursery? What might have happened to justify such a futuristic-looking piece of kit? What is the spray?

What do students find most striking about the picture? Ask them to describe what they see, accurately and without interpretation, as if to someone who could not see the picture. How easy do they find the task? Would someone who couldn't see it be able to imagine it well enough to guess what was happening?

Do students find the picture scary? Talk about what effect the sight of protective clothing and equipment has on people. Does it tend to make them feel more secure and confident? Or do they become more anxious?

Focus

After discussion, confirm what students may have worked out. The photograph shows a worker spraying disinfectant at a primary school called Kwong Fu in Taiwan. It was taken on 23 May 2009 after Taiwan confirmed four new swine flu cases. That brought the island's total infections to six.

Discuss the reasoning behind the spraying. Ask students to identify which of the UK government guidelines on handling swine flu covers what is happening here. Remind them that the advice is for frequent cleaning of hard surfaces, such as door handles, using a normal cleaning product.

Discuss who is responsible for cleaning hard surfaces in the different buildings the students use? Who does what, and how frequently? What contribution do students themselves make to the cleaning?

Look again at the photograph. Discuss whether normal cleaning products usually require face masks and protective suits. Does knowing that the spray is just ordinary disinfectant change students' thoughts about it? Is the operation less serious and dramatic than it first looks?

Talk about what might be behind this kind of operation. Invite students to wonder why a press photographer was present. Might the aim have been to give reassurance to children, parents and the public? If the intention was to reduce panic about swine flu, do students think it would work?

Working as a whole or in pairs or small groups, try to agree three words which describe what is going on in the photograph.

After discussion show students another photograph of the same school:

These are the staff of the school, about to begin cleaning classrooms, scrubbing the tables and chairs. Discuss the differences between this photograph and the previous one. How might the staff be feeling about their task? How might their thoughts and attitudes be different from that of the operator with the disinfectant spray gun? Which job would students rather have?

Talk about how a person's sex affects the job they do. Can students think of examples from their own lives when boys and men get to operate expensive gadgets, and girls and women just get on with the job with everyday materials? Does it happen the other way round?

Do the same word game as before – agreeing three words which best sum up what is going on in this picture. Compare the results and discuss the differences. Talk about power and status in society.

Finally, ask students if they know which country the swine flu outbreak began in. (The answer is Mexico.) In the early stages of the infection, restaurants, schools, museums, sports stadiums and similar places were closed to the public.

A massive cleaning and disinfecting operation took place in Mexico as health officials around the world waited to see how the infection might spread. Ask students to close their eyes and imagine the scene in, say, a restaurant in Mexico City being cleaned during this shutdown. How might the staff have been behaving?

Then show them the third and final picture:

Talk about human approaches to problems. Have students ever found that light-hearted fooling around can help people deal with a potentially serious situation? Media, politicians and government agencies can tend to be very solemn and serious minded. Is that always the best attitude? Invite students' views on whether lightening up a bit can help people cope better, or is irresponsible and risky. Where is the dividing line?

Again, talk about whether societies have different expectations about how men and women ought to act.

Discuss how the pictures have affected students' views of swine flu and the practices to limit its spread. Health agencies are anxious to ensure people take precautions, without panic and without cynicism. From the photographs they have seen, do students think that balance has been achieved? Do they think that balance has been achieved in general in the UK?

Developments

Consider the following ideas for further exploration.

> The Department of Health says a swine flu information leaflet has been delivered to homes nationwide. Do students remember getting one? Where is it? Who in the household might have looked at it? Discuss other ways of getting public health messages across. Which would be best for students and their peer groups?

> Government advice is to wash your hands with soap and hot water or a sanitiser gel often. Invite students to identify places they have seen the alcohol-based gels. Do they know how they should be used? Use a fingernail sized amount, rub it vigorously all over your hands. The gel will evaporate quickly. There is no need for water or towels. Proper washing with soap and water is better, but the gel can be more convenient at times.

Ask students to design a poster, radio advert or video to communicate these messages. Or do the same for one on the importance of avoiding airborne infections by using tissues to trap particles expelled during coughing or sneezing. Fifty years ago buses carried signs saying "no spitting" – which was known to spread TB. Should there be signs in public places reminding people to use tissues?

> The job of newspaper picture editors is to find interesting images to accompany news items. For swine flu, that has mostly resulted in photographs of people wearing face masks. Yet, wearing face masks is not recommended as a general way of avoiding infection in the UK. Explore this contradiction. Ask students to search out swine flu media images. What proportion include face masks? Offer a prize to anyone finding strong visual images that suggest the topic of swine flu but that don't include masks. Discuss how media images skew the way people view situations – and even influence their behaviour.