Potential Swine Flu Pandemic

Those things don't spread by air. They aren't pandemics that can spread across the globe overnight.

Where is the relevance? The WHO and CDC were panicking too. Again, why do you keep avoiding the question of when exactly people should start taking precautions? If this was clearly an overreaction, it should be an easy question to answer.

In 1918, 50 million people died of a swine/avian flu strain. Perhaps it would have been a bit less if there had been an initial "overblown" panic.

 

Please don't say "AIDS" is a virus anymore. AIDS is the syndrome or group of diseases that are caused by contracting HIV, sir. You could be diagnosed with AIDS after you get HIV.

 

sure will....i'll let you know if i notice anything done differently there.

 

I don't think the media had to sensationalize anything...they put a mic in front of the WHO and those guys made statements that sounded very grave. They were clearly very concerned.

And at the end of the day, I defer to the WHO over how to deal with pandemics, as opposed to myself or the Clutchfans BBS.

 

I think the problem I have with the reporting is perspective. Granted, I did not watch all the coverage, but so far this year ~800 people in the United States have died every week from complications involving "regular" flu and I never really saw any reports comparing different current strains of flu. In depth reporting would have been informative as to why this strain needs to be taken much more seriously than the regular strain when so many deaths routinely occur with the regular strain. Instead, I saw coverage of people wearing masks at the malls and walking downtown.

In additon, the last time there was a big flu scare was the Avian flu and nothing really came of it.

I am afraid that with the next flu scare, folks will start to not pay attention.

 

Ike and Rita called to say hi.

 

You really didn't see ANY reports comparing this to the regular flu season? I saw it at talked about at least twice.

The CDC and WHO were concerned because we have no natural immunity to this...they had no idea how it would respond to anit-virals...and they had no idea how virulent it would be. They had limited information about mortality rate, and what they had didn't look good. So they were extremely cautious and their words were scary....the media didn't have anything to go on more than that.

But again...it's not like schools shut down because they were watching the news...they shut down because the WHO and CDC were telling them it was advisable to do so. People took these actions we're all rolling our eyes at now because doctors who specialize in this stuff thought it was a good idea. Hooray that it was overkill, but put me in the same spot...listening to a doctor telling me what is advisable...and I'm following their advice every time. I didn't go to medical school.

 

You're absolutely correct, was just typing really fast last night after the Rocket's loss.

 

I do not recall seeing any TV news reports detailing why the Swine Flu should be taken more seriously than the regular flu. I am sure there were some, but of all the reports I saw on various news programs, I never saw it. I saw much more "sensationalized" coverage than common sense coverage.

I am not blaming the CDC or WHO for espousing the seriousness, but I would have liked to see more perspective. When I mention to folks how 35,000/year die in the U.S. from "regular" flu and so far this year, 800/week, they are quite surprised.

I know that we were/are dealing with a relatively unknown strain, so caution is the best policy.

 

I'll say again, I think WHO did what they thought they should've done. When you have the initial numbers you have to react...unfortunately they reacted on erroneous information.

Which meant 250,000 kids weren't allowed to go to school, putting a huge burden on child care for those families.

Thousands of folks that had 'flu-like' symptoms flooded ERs around the US. This put a huge strain on an already short handed work force which reduces their capabilities to handle truly sick patients.

Even Governor Perry was saying how this was a substantial amount of media hype.

The CDC and WHO reacted on a better safe than sorry approach, which turned out to be overkill...but we're safe.

 

My wife and I were going to be going to Play del Carmen as well next week, but went ahead and changed our plans and are going to Barbados instead. We decided to be a little over cautious for certain reasons, but I honestly think we would have been fine with our original plans. Best of luck to you, I hope you have lots of fun!

 

I'm just not understanding how the WHO's reaction is the media's fault. Your whole post was about the CDC and WHO...but then threw in this part about the media. The media reported what the CDC And WHO said....when schools started closing, of course it was newsworthy....but it was the CDC and WHO who made that happen...not the media.

 

Current lead story on chron.com - "2 Billion May Get Swine Flu":

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/6412699.html

 

What?

Which of my 'whole posts' was about the CDC and WHO?

The WHO's reaction was based on the incorrect numbers given by the Mexican government. Unconfirmed numbers.

And when did I 'just' throw the media in there? I've been talking about the media the whole time man.

I'm saying how the public is unnecessarily panicking b/c of the media frenzy.

I don't know, to me it's just amazing how the story has taken off while it's mortality numbers are FAR LESS than other flus(and apparently it isn't as easy to catch as very few family members of the sick in Mexico had shown any illness)...yet you don't see people constantly talking about those others. That's media driven, that's my point. This flu is the flavor of the month and I for one am sick of hearing about it.

Do you think we reacted the way we should have?

The schools shutting down, the flooded ERs, the growing anti-mexican sentiment, quarantined travelers? Some of these are WHO recommendations(which are warranted), but the media's continous ad nauseum coverage is causing the panic associated with these problems to be bigger than they should be. Like some schools being shutdown that have no flu, but are in the same district of another that had a positive student tested, ERs being overloaded with media created hypochondriacs, people being afraid to travel, stuff like that...I can't believe you can't understand that...

And media coverage isn't always going to be 100% insightful..they stretch the truth for better ratings. Just like the boy that died at TCH...the headlines "First US death", you'd have to dig deep to find out it was a mexican child that was brought here after being sick for quite awhile.
And now the actual first death of the lady in Brownsville who had previous health problems, WHILE being pregnant. 2 huge factors that greatly increase mortality in any flu strain.

I don't know how much more clear I can be, I've always been bad at explaining things , but the media attention has caused this flu to be feared a lot more than it should be b/c of misinformation and constant coverage.

 

Good God...

 

But again, that's just a report of exactly what the WHO said. It's not media exaggeration. Should the media simply not report what the WHO is saying?

 

Does it need to be in big bold type as the lead story? I've looked at a number of other news sites and it is either not on their front page or it's buried down with the rest of the stories.

For accuracy's sake, I guess WHO is correct as long as 2,000,000,001+ folks don't come down with the swine flu.

 

doctors and scientists??? pfffftt...please. we have clutchfans!

 

My state reported its first cases this past weekend. I'm doomed.