Dear Ottawa Citizen

Dear Ottawa Citizen,

Today I noticed copies of your Monday and Tuesday editions in my mailbox. I know that you are hoping by providing me -- a former Citizen subscriber -- with free copies of your paper for the next week or so will make me reconsider my position and sign up for a subscription.

However, you are doing the exact opposite. In the last week or so, I have been inundated with articles and broadcasts related to H1N1 in order to make a decision in terms of getting the Swine Flu vaccination for myself and my daughter. I have made a decision. We will be getting vaccinated. However, it remains to be seen when we will get our inoculations as the line ups at the vaccination clinics operated by Ottawa Public Health have been swamped by clients. I am now faced with the situation: do we wait in line for hours in the cold and risk darling daughter contracting illness or do we sit at home, unvaccinated. We in Ottawa can take some small comfort that we aren't alone as it is a similar story across the country. (Check out this article).

When I turn on the television, H1N1 leads the national and local newscasts. When I turn on the radio, H1N1 is what people want to talk about. At least I can turn off the channel or frequency when I've heard enough. Now, to my surprise, I'm getting H1N1 news delivered to my doorstep. Your papers were promptly filed away in the recycling bin. I tried calling your reader sale and service department today, but it was closed. I will call first thing in the morning to get your company to cease delivery of your product to my doorstep.

As a former journalist, you would think I'd be reading your paper with rapt attention, trying to education myself on the current situation. But I'm not. I am a mother to a young toddler who just can't take any more bad news. I do not want to mitigate the deaths of anyone who loses their life to H1N1. Their deaths are a tragedy and my heart goes out to their families. However, I can't feed into the fear. Like the virus itself, I'm eliminating my exposure to news related to H1N1. Depending on the wait times at local clinics, I will get vaccinated. But in the meantime, I've got to vaccinate myself against the news, even if that means temporarily putting my head into the sand.

Sincerely,

Valerie McLaughlin