Fluency on flu not yet achieved
by Michael Graham
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Monday, May 4, 2009
What is swine flu?
Is it one of Mother Nature’s weapons of mass destruction? Is it, to quote The Associated Press, a “virulent” killer that has “swept deeper into Europe” and “surged” to 100 cases in the United States, threatening to overwhelm our hospitals and fill our morgues?
Or is it something you treat with NyQuil?
After reading enough science reporting to ace the MCAS, I’ve concluded that the most common symptom of swine flu must be some kind of split personality disorder.
On the one hand, I am entirely ready to panic. When more than 150 people are reported killed by a flu bug - middle-aged, healthy adults - that’s a big deal. I’ve read about the flu pandemic of 1918 and the millions dead. If that’s what we’re talking about, then sound the “freak out!” alarm now.On the other hand, there are some 100 cases here already and most sufferers aren’t even in the hospital. They’ve just got the flu.
Not “swine plague,” ’‘swine cancer” or even “swine erectile dysfunction.” Just the flu. You know - nausea, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. That’s not a pandemic. That’s a weekend in Tijuana.
Sure, the flu can kill. It kills about 36,000 Americans every year - particularly the very young and old. If that sounds like a lot of people, keep in mind that every year, between 5 percent and 20 percent of all Americans get the flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 50 American children have already died from flu this year.
All before swine flu, and without a press conference.
So when President Barack Obama repeatedly interrupts his speeches to discuss possibly shutting down entire school systems in the face of a pandemic, it gets my attention. When our painfully politically correct Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano seriously considers shutting down our southern border, I have to believe we’re in real trouble.
The scary swine flu story that’s seized America’s attention is an easily spread virus that kills healthy, middle-aged people. Not a bad cold, or Montezuma’s Revenge on steroids. Something deadly, and new.
It turns out that swine flu isn’t new. Not only did we have a swine flu panic in 1976 (when the flu shots killed more people than the flu itself), but medical journalist Christine Gorman reports that “the H1N1 subtype is now very common.
“The current vaccine even includes a strain of H1N1, first identified in 2007.”
So why are we panicking again?
But there is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, standing in front of an ominous Homeland Security backdrop, announcing the “first American death” (a 2-year-old brought here from Mexico) and promising that “unfortunately, there will be more.”
Gorman confirms that Sebelius may be right - but maybe not.
“You’re right when you say this really just is ‘the flu,’ ” she told me. “But the medical community is concerned because we don’t know yet why there are 150 deaths in Mexico.”
It could be that a lot of people in Mexico had this flu, and the 150 represents a typical rate of mortality. Or it could be that this version of the H1N1 virus has a deadly component it hasn’t shown in America yet.
Could someone just let me know when to panic?
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