Quote:
Originally Posted by BarTopDancer
How many people die from the regular flu?
H1N1 is a new strain of the flu and the news is making things worse by hyping up the panic levels.
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What panic levels? All anyone is saying is keep your hands clean and get immunized if you can, especially if you're high risk.
The reason H1N1 is getting the amount of attention is two-fold.
1) It's particularly virulent. It spreads more easily and causes more severe symptoms than most seasonal flus.
2) That alone wouldn't be all that big of a deal, if swine flu had come on the scene in time to be included in the seasonal flu vaccine. But by the time H1N1 began to spread, production of the flu vaccine had already begun.
The flu is a serious matter. It's wiped out large chunks of world population several times through history. The only reason that it doesn't really do that anymore is that the CDC and WHO and related agencies have pretty good strategies for controlling outbreaks. But that strategy involves some educated guess-work, it's not fool proof. When they guess right (most of the time), we all hardly notice. A good chunk of people get themselves immunized, we all are fairly good about washing our hands, and things remain relatively in control, business as usual.
But those rare cases where they guess wrong, they need to make some noise and get people's attention. Business as usual is not going to cut it. If we were to just try to breeze through flu season thinking that the normal amount of people getting the seasonal flu shot and assuming the normal level of basic hygiene are going to keep us as safe as normal, we have a problem. People need to be aware that some extra precaution is necessary.
I feel sorry for the CDC. What a sh*tty position to be in. If they don't do their job, thousands die. If they do their job, people see nothing happen and then bitch at them for interrupting their day with some reminders to wash their hands.
Lack of mass flu deaths is not proof that the warnings were b.s. It's proof that the extra awareness has done its job.