Alvaro Uribe has THE FLU!

Mon, 08/31/2009 - 1:15pm

Even as it has become clear that the swine flu pandemic (at least in its current mutation) isn't much more serious or deadly than normal flu, stories of prominent people getting infected with it continue to be covered as if they had contracted bubonic plague.

Probably the best way to put swine flu stories in perspective is to just remove the words "swine" or "H1N1" from before the words "flu" and "virus." For instance:

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has contracted the [...] flu virus and is being treated by doctors while continuing to work from his residence, government spokesman Cesar Velasquez said on Sunday. 

That doesn't sound so bad, now does it?

I'm sorry for sounding flip. H1N1 is a legitimate public health concern that continues to claim lives around the globe. But still, when I see headlines like "Bangladesh reports first H1N1 flu death," I have to wonder how many how many people in that country have died of normal flu (or any number of other diseases) this year without it warranting international media attention.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Hey, it's good for Big Pharma

by Don Bacon on Mon, 08/31/2009 - 2:28pm

In the United States more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and more than 20,000 people die from the flu and its complications every year. The A/H1N1 flu death toll in the United State has reached 555 with hospitalizations of 8,842, according to the latest statistics released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta on Friday. So thus far swine flu deaths in the US are less than three per cent of the usual annual flu death toll.

hello

by Don Bacon on Mon, 08/31/2009 - 11:03pm

On most other diaries your comments aren't working, neither is your email.