Posted by
Andrews on Tuesday, May 05, 2009 4:53:23 PM
I have recently been asking why we are in such a panic about swine flu. First of all, we have tens of thousands of deaths from flu every year, so why this handful of deaths caused a panic is beyond me. Similarly, why the emphasis on "swine"? All flu, excepting mutations in purely human versions, are either avian or swine flus, that is where flu originates, all the time. So I just don't see why the appearance of this strain, along with a few deaths in what amounts to a third world nation with socialized medicine is causing a panic.
And now I see that
a WSJ opinion piece makes the same case, as well as picking up my argument that even if we did reach the "pandemic" stage (which means simply the disease is world-wide), it would in no way resemble 1918. We had no penicillin in 1918, just to make a simple point. The 1918 treatment for pneumonia, as well as most opportunistic infections that accompanied flu, was bed rest and blankets. That's about it. We do have slightly better care available today. Nor do our current military operations mirror in either scope or health consequences the conflict taking place in 1918. And as far as diet is concerned, refrigeration and trnasportation make even the poorest of today better fed, with more diverse and nutritious foods, than the wealthiest of 1918. Not to mention preventative care we have available that was not even imagined in 1918.
And finally, the author makes a point I have made in many of my environmental articles. Despite the claims of environmentalists that "technology kills", through global warming, pollution, chemicals, what have you, the truth is technology makes us rich, and there is a VERY, VERY clear statistical correlation between wealth and lifespan, on both a personal level and a national level. In short, rich people live longer. And e are richer than we were in 1918, and the US is richer than Mexico.
Which is a bit of a long winded way of saying: Rest easy, the pigs won't get you. Nor will the birds. Nor will SARS. Nor mad cow. Nor legionnaire's disease. The plague du jour is almost always more of a threat in the minds of reporters than it is in reality.