H1N1, formerly known as the Swine Flu, has now reached Florida. There are so far 2 confirmed cases, and there are 17 suspected cases, some in our county.
In any way, I am starting to get very irritated with certain types of media. They hype it up and scare the shit out of people, playing on their fears. But some TV stations are very fact based and keep it real.
I much rather want an overreaction to this flu, and it turns out to be OK, or not enough being done and then it is too late, for sure. But there is no reason to try to scare people like I saw on some local TV stations last night, very tacky!
The fact is, if you compare the H1N1 flu with the regular, seasonal flu it is pretty startling: deaths in the US so far this year from the H1N1 flu: 1. Deaths in the US so far this year from regular seasonal flu: 36,000... It put things in perspective, does it not?
Now I am going back to work until about 2 PM, when I am going to go out and eat a nice steak with my husband, and then off to see a movie.
***Correction/update***
As you might seen in the comments, this was so obvious I don't know why it never occurred to me before! Of course, the normal seasonal flu kills about 65,000 on average annually. THAT is why the H1N1 is so dangerous! It is a new strain that human shave no built immunity against, and there is NO vaccine. So if the normal fly kills 65,000 people annually in the US, the potential for teh H1N1 is kind of scary. Stay safe, everyone!
4 comments:
The point about the 38,000 people who die of human influenza complications each year is that humans have built up somewhat of an immunity to human influenza, and we understand it enough to have a vaccine for it, and it still kills 38,000 people each year. The H1N1 virus is brand new and still evolving and we don't have immunity to it and we don't have a vaccine. So if regular flu kills 38,000 each year, what can we expect from this evolving and complex flu that we have just identified. That's the perspective.
I never even thought about that, I am not sure what I was thinking... See another thing I heard in media that was not exactly true...
jag håller med dig. Man får inte panika men man ska ju vara lite extra försiktg och köra lite extra handhygien...kanske undvika ställen där det är extremt trång och massor av folk. Massor av vitaminer..osv.
ha en bra helg
Jag tycker ändå att media överdriver detta med svininfulensan alldeles för mycket ändå. Visst bör man ta det hela på allvar och man vet aldrig hur det hela kan utveckla sig, MEN jag tror inte på att piska upp denna skrämselpanikstämning heller. Jag tror inte att saker och ting blir bättre för att folk får panik.
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