Okay, I’ve been trying not to get swept up in Swine Flu Fever, but quite frankly the level of hysteria has reached ridiculous proportions.
The media, of course, has reacted with big red headlines about the KILLER DISEASE and vastly over-inflating ‘victim’ figures to get the most public interest. People, more people died in road accidents before the news reader finished her intro. Get a grip.
Finally, I found a great article over at Junkfood Science: Flu Fears which is the most sensible overview of the actual science I’ve found so far. It covers most of the salient points and helps put things a little more into perspective. Like the fact that this is “no more serious than your average flu bug”.
To summarise, I can’t do much better than give you yesterday’s xkcd:
8 responses so far ↓
1 Sylvia // 28th Apr 2009 at 4:57 pm
Even the Daily Mail has managed to recognise the real issue:
Governments worldwide are now battling to contain public panic about a pandemic.
The knee-jerk reaction is causing more problems than the actual virus. And the big threat seems to be “even worse than bird flu” which was … nothing like the media horror stories in the end.
Has anyone diagnosed outside of Mexico City actually suffered from more than “mild flu-like symptoms” ? The epidemic there is of course awful but the reaction here strikes me as predominantly embarrassing.
2 Pewari // 28th Apr 2009 at 5:17 pm
From what I can tell, there have been a few hospitalisations (after all, those who just have mild symptoms won’t bother going to see their GP and hence won’t be tested) but all have either recovered or are recovering well.
But this is to be expected with any flu outbreak – even normal flu season has hospitalisation and deaths, we just don’t get a nightly death toll on news programmes. This, after all, is why I get my yearly flu jab – as an asthmatic, I am in a higher risk category of complications.
Even out of those reported in Mexico who died from “Swine Flu” very few of them have actually tested positive for the virus.
3 bc // 28th Apr 2009 at 5:42 pm
That junkscience post is a great read. Thanks!
4 bc // 28th Apr 2009 at 5:42 pm
Oops. junkFOODscience. D’Oh! I knew that…
5 anabels // 28th Apr 2009 at 11:22 pm
There are some reasons to be worried viz the fact the deaths are in the 15 – 45 age range rather than the usual under 2/over 60 where most flu deaths occur. But honestly, any flu is a potential killer so wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze/cough, and stay at home if you are sick! Oh and thanks Perwari for getting vaccinated on behalf of those of us who have egg allergies and can’t be. The more vaccinated people there are the lower the risk of exposure for everyone.
6 Pewari // 29th Apr 2009 at 8:14 am
Not really, anabels. Certainly, most of the cases that have hit the UK seem to be no worse than the common cold in terms of symptoms. It’s looking like it’s even milder than normal flu.
Remember, the media are bored of hyping up the worldwide economic disaster, they are desperate for another crisis that will shift papers/gain eyeballs. One thing I’ve learned is that you cannot trust the mainstream media to report any science or medical “news” with any degree of accuracy.
7 Pewari // 29th Apr 2009 at 8:18 am
Oh, and there’s only actually been 7 deaths confirmed by WHO, despite the media reporting 100s of victims. Really, 7 people are not enough to make any comment on age range – there appears to be no additional information on the previous health of those 7 people, were they already a vulnerable group, did they not have access to a hospital until they were already dying, were they living in extreme poverty (highly likely)?
Save your panic for checking that the traffic’s clear before you cross the road.
8 Ys // 29th Apr 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hehe I’ve also been enjoying the panic racing across the BBC news every day when I sit to each my lunch. People love a drama so leave them to it, I say ;)
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