Thoughts on Swine Flu

sampurtill:

The media is having a hayday with the swine flu panic. Must be a slow news week, here are some numbers to put this thing into perspective.

  • 6,706,993,152: population of the world in July 2008 [source]
  • 1,000,000: people killed from April 6 to mid July in the 1994 Rwandan genocide (given very little press) [source]
  • 443,000: Number of people that die from smoking every year in the US [source]
  • 3,974: auto accident deaths in California (2007) [source]
  • 236: confirmed swine flu cases which has dominated the media this last week [source]
Americans love panicking about things like this - I’m sure you all remember SARS or the West Nile Virus. Maybe it’s the ‘Cold War complex’ Americans have? Or our love of stress? Or what? I will be ignoring all the news until this becomes a real problem to me, I wish everyone could do the same.

Great insight. I have a few more things to add though. It should be noted that with regular Influenza, each year approximately 10-15% of all hospitalized cases result in fatalities. Compare this to the statistics we have right now:

  • The death rate with the most liberal estimate is 0.04%
  • Compare that to the exact numbers that are knownL 0.03%

Also note that there is only 1 known (no other suspected) in the US. every single other known death and suspected deaths occurred in Mexico.

So unless this biatch of a virus starts spreading like wildfire, I say just ctfo.

Thanks Sam, for a little sense among complete idiocy… Unless we’re wrong and this whole thing becomes like the film Outbreak, but in that case, we’re all fucked, and not even an “i told you so” will matter ;)

sampurtill