Addressing media Thursday from a bed wheeled into a hospital conference center, Ms. Abbott was also clear-eyed about the challenges of rehabilitation and the pain she may endure along the way.

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At its worst, my guilt takes me to a dismal bed where I am visited by the ghost of Media Future.

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Faced with the edge of a cliff, according to media accounts, they would prefer jumping off with a homemade parachute made of bed sheets to finding another way safely down.

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The problem is that not everyone uses social media - it tends to be concentrated in major cities - and there is no guarantee people laid up in bed with a high fever will feel like broadcasting their symptoms to the world unless they are caught up in a media panic like the one around the H1N1 virus.

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