I'm all for an informed public.
I support efforts to improve public health.

But this swine flu stuff has me a little puzzled. Okay, as many as 200 people in Mexico may have died from Swine Flu. Some people in the USA have it, some people in Costa Rica. Is the media putting a little more emphasis on this than it merits?

Let's compare the death toll/infection numbers to some other diseases that weren't mentioned on the front page of the newspaper today:

HIV/AIDS: According to the CIA Factbook, in 2007 there were about 1.2 million people in the USA alone who were infected. Also 2007, about 22,000 deaths. That's over 60 deaths per day, on average. Go try to find an article that was published in a major newspaper this week that addresses the AIDS/HIV pandemic. Good luck.

From 1991 to 1998 in the USA alone 1,465 people died from varicella infection*. I'm sure you heard about it. I don't recall seeing much in the news of this deadly virus, despite the fact that 95% of adults are believed to have been exposed. That's because it is more commonly known as.... chicken pox. Yup, that's right folks, from '91 to '98 more people died in the USA every year than the total number of Mexican Swine Flu deaths to date. And we can all agree that chicken pox is a pandemic. But where is the massive media blitz?
*source

Finally- the good old flu. The CDC estimates that 36,000 people die every year from influenza (worldwide the number may be as high as 500,000). Not this hyped up swine type, but regular old flu. That's over 100/day.

I'm not trying to convince people to take a cavalier approach to personal hygiene or to jump on the next plane to Mexico City, hugging every stranger they come across. I'm not trying to suggest that the folks infected with Swine Flu aren't suffering. I'm merely trying to offer a little rational counterpoint to the headlines and remind everyone that there are plenty of wretched diseases out there and it makes sense to think a little bit before getting all worked up over the "news".

Labels: news