Swine Flu – subject of the media’s panic du jour – might not be as dangerous as the usual strains of flu that bounce around the country every winter:
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
The H1N1 outbreak (the government is trying to downplay the “Swine” moniker, and “Rosie O’Donnell Flu” hasn’t taken off yet) has killed somewhere between 20 (says the WHO, yesterday) and 100-odd people, mostly in Mexico. This is compared to the 200,000 people hospitalized and 36,000 a year who die of flu-related causes, according to the CDC. In other words, in the week that the world has been panicking about this outbreak, 250 people (on average) died of all the other mundane flus, without a single headline.
Not to downplay the potential this flu has to mess things up, and certainly not to downplay the tragedy suffered by the families of those who’ve died in this outbreak.
Are you ready to add swine flu to global warming, evolution and water fluoridation on the list of Pointy-Head Sciencey Stuff Us Real Muricans Don’t Believe In?
By the way, I think JRoosh, The Poor Man’s Mitch Berg(TM), must not have gotten the memo. Just a couple days ago, he was worried the president isn’t panicking *enough* about the flu.
http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=4659
Or is the idea that you guys will take both sides of every issue, to pull the collective SitD prediction rate up to 50%?
Right, because we real murcans cite the LATimes and the WHO for this sort of thing all the time.
That’s the clue right there, Mitch. Any time you guys cite reputable sources, Angryclown knows *something* is afoot.
Commies agreeing with murcans?
Yeah. Pretty crazy stuff. A guy could get on a watchlist for that.
I agree that so far there hasn’t been a big indication that this is a deadly virus. The down side of this is that it IS spreading quickly, is a type A H1N1 virus, which is the same type as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that is estimated to have affected half the population of the world at the time over a period of 9 months. Back in 1918 we didn’t have antibiotics and antivirals to rely on, a major consideration in how concerned we should get. The seasonal nature of flu is in our favor as well, summer is not usually the big time for flu – although that didn’t help much in 1918.
We haven’t had any indication of numbers from Africa or South America so far, at least not that I’ve heard. They may be a lot further behind the curve in documenting and verifying cases.
We have no clue as to the actual number of people who may be ill with swine flu (with Mexico being ground zero, maybe we should call it Mexican flu, a fitting sequel to Spanish flu) or how many be carriers that haven’t shown any symptoms yet. By the time people are symptomatic, they may already have infected a lot of other people.
The up side, people are generally getting better about washing their hands. Probably the best investment in safety from the flu is to invest in isn’t a stupid paper mask, it’s one of those little nail brushes you can carry in your pocket, to use when washing your hands. Worst places to get clean are the grooves in the skin along the knuckles, and around the cuticle and under the nails.
My pet gripe so far is that the state of MN chose to send a special plane to carry the sample to CDC from the one person here who has been identified as having the flu. Sheesh, Fed Ex and UPS handle medical material safely and have a priority speed that would be just as quick, not to mention a lot cheaper than sending a special plane. We use it all the time for shipping frozen and /or chilled dog semen that has to arrive same day. I doubt that all the other test samples the CDC are getting are coming by special indiviual flights.
Dog Gone said:
“My pet gripe so far is that the state of MN chose to send a special plane to carry the sample to CDC from the one person here who has been identified as having the flu.”
Government spends in mysterious ways. 😉
DG: This flu is not the same strain as the 1918 and Avian flu. Those were/are H5N1, while the Swine/Rosie/Politically Correct Name Pending flu is H1N1.
It’s listed as H1N1 on the web site for the CDC Night Writer, as well as a number of other locations that are reputable. Do you have a source for the H5N1 designation? Obviously these are not the same strain, but they do seem to be a related variaion to the 1918 flu.
Influenza is scary stuff, especially if you are very young, very old, or immune compromised. At this point in time I don’t think there’s enough evidence as to the virility of the strain to warrant “going all Joe Biden about it”.