The hype vs statistics - The flu...

[liberal N proud]

How many confirmed cases of the swine flu are there?

This form the Connecticut department of health:

Flu Statistics

Influenza (the flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by a virus. There are many types of flu viruses, including type A and B, that circulate throughout the world each year. Symptoms of flu can be mild to severe, and at times can lead to death. In the United States, about 5% to 20% of the population become infected with the flu virus annually. Of people who get the flu, more than 200,000 are hospitalized, and about 36,000 die from complications caused by the flu each year.

http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3136&q=410788

That was a quick google search

[HereSince1628]

1. Because influenza epidemics are so feared by public health officials, when they see a flu

that is new and that seems to manifest virulence, and high transmissibility, they go rapidly go into defensive posture.

Because of the issue of timeliness in fighting a influenza outbreak, they often enter into mitigation efforts before they have all the data they want. To protect the population that is probably the way it should be.

Unfortunately, the media knows it can improve its ratings by sizzling up the story. So they sizzle it up.

[Tracer]

2. It's best to put the swine flu in context:

"Use of the word pandemic is likely to trigger more demand for vaccines than the regular flu season, said Dr. Louise M. Dembry, director of hospital epidemiology at Yale-New Haven Hospital."

"Thirty-five to forty thousand people die per year in the US from the regular flu," she said. "It's not that it's a benign disease even in regular times."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/04/28/past_epidemics_have_current_import/

[Warpy]

3. The real panic is south of the border

and if you think there is hype here, you should read their newspapers!

Even areas that have seen no flu cases are running stories about the loss in stock prices and the decrease in business activity.

The sky is falling there. It's only started to show a few cracks here.