Media overblowing threat of swine flu

For once, you have written something I can agree with. Congratulations!

But I’m a slimy bastard, and cannot resist: why don’t you apply the same deductive reasoning to what you hear from FOX “News”?

Finally, some rational commentary on this topic. Thanks.

You’re right… We shouldn’t be listening to the media and their tendency to toss around made-up statistics just to get people’s attention.

“Like the average seasonal flu…90 percent of those [who die] will be older than age 65.” Uh huh… Clearly you believe that the CDC is just another media organization that is throwing around meaningless data as a scare tactic. Because according to the CDC, only 9% of deaths from H1N1 were in people 65 . You were only off by a factor of 10, if that makes you feel better. 41% of deaths were in people 25-49. http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU/surveillanceqa.htm

Oh, and only people who buy into the media hype are still calling it swine flu. Medical professionals decided months ago that the more proper name is H1N1. But again, who cares about facts?

The two big worries are fast mutation and zero immunity.

The last close relative of this flu came by around 50 years ago. Notably, our grey-haired elders mostly got that flu, and their immune systems mostly remember. Could this help explain their lower death rate? You, on the other hand, have never met any version of this bug.

Fortunately, it’s not too bad at this point. But every flu is mutable, and changes often come in mid-season. Past sorts of swine flu have been among the worst modern killers. Look up the 1918 pandemic, which also was not too bad, until it was horrid.

If the worst case happens, the folks who got shots will have some protection. The rest will not. Zero immunity plus severe infection equals megadeath.

If the coin falls the other way, most of us will have wasted some time and some money to avoid one more bad cold. And a few (as always) will die early because they got their recommended shots.

Some questions do not have answers in the back of the textbook. The universe does not grade on a curve: you pass, or you fail.

Well said, old timer.

Myself, I’m glad to see people are generally concerned about their health. That people are trying to keep up their immune systems, are more conscious of hand-washing, and are actually staying home when they’re sick are all positives, pandemic or no. These are things that should happen anyway, but it took something like the threat of H1N1 to get people really doing these things consistently.
Do people sometimes overreact? Is the media guilty of sensationalizing nearly everything? Yes and yes, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be aware and shouldn’t keep up with these positive steps.

The State News should be ashamed to allow such utter falsehoods to be published. The severity of H1N1 (Nobody who seriously discusses the issue calls it Swine Flu) is not an opinion piece that is to be debated. Dealing with it is a mixture of scientific and medical knowledge and known effective public health policy decisions.

Yes, the media has overreacted; however, it is even more dangerous to pretend it is not a serious issue because of overblown media coverage. People should be taking precautions, not pretending it’s ‘just another flu’. Perhaps the 2,916 Influenza and Pneumonia Syndrome Deaths (530 lab confirmed influenza) or the 12,466 cases of influenza severe enough to require hospitalization will make you realize that maybe an ignorant political science major shouldn’t be advising people on public health policy.

Look at the facts on the CDC’s website to really educate yourself.
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Sure, almost 3,000 people have died of the flu this year. But 36,000 die every year, so we really aren’t out of the ordinary. People just need to chill. All this hysteria will do nothing but make things worse by convincing people to go to the hospitals when they don’t need to, both using up limited medical resources and exposing themselves to other infections while in the hospital. Way to go, Eric, just don’t be surprised when all the over-reactors get all upset with you. It’s what they do.

You had the chance to write a valid article about people overreacting to H1N1, but instead opted to spout uninformed dribble and then fail to back anything up.

“In the end, all that happens is a few days of feeling bad and perhaps having to make up an assignment we missed when we didn’t go to class that one day, not because, let’s face it, we couldn’t, but because we would rather not.”

Poor English aside, this is incredibly ignorant.

First of all, not everyone has mild symptoms. Second, don’t assume that all students skip class just because they’re slightly uncomfortable. Many people physically can not handle attending class when they are sick. Attending class when very sick is also a great way to get others sick.

“Why don’t we do this every year? The flu is the flu. Putting “swine” or “bird” in front of it is not going to make it any worse.”

The ‘Swine’ flu and ‘Bird’ flu that people talk about are not the same flu that we typically see each year. They are different strains of influenza, and can be more serious. Dismissing these as merely names is idiotic at best.

Either do your research or stick to political science.

I’m here baby and will be coming to a dorm room near you soon! Look out Eric…

But…you ARE the media…how am I supposed to believe what you are saying?!?

You are sooooo right. Governmental hoax to step aside from the lack of action being taken on the health care bill…

Who knew, ‘Wag the Dog’ was right… Thank you Business Ethics MGT 409.

You call it H1N1 because we spent lots of money to get the government to stop calling it swine flu because our sales were going down because people thought they could get it from eating pork. You see how the system works.

So an uninformed opinion piece on the severity of H1N1 suddenly turns into an anti-government conspiracy theory rant?

What is this guy smoking? Putting swine or avian in front of the flu DOES make it worse because most humans will have no immunity to it.

Perhaps we should bring in a doctor to write opinion pieces on this. You know, someone that is actually educated on the subject?

I think we need to worry more about our goverments response to our economic problems then any flu or any war in the middle east. Too bad people are more worried about catching a football or baseball game then where all the tarp money is going. I think its time people started to wake up and smell what the polititions are shoveling. They havent done much to get the job market back on track. The construction industry is dead here in NYC. So far been out of work for over a year and a half. they think they can ease our woes with extending unemployment bennys. What about health bennys and no i don’t want government health care. Just want a job where i can get benifits from. It would seem the only people our government cares about are the CEOs with 6 figure incomes. I think we would have been better off if we were being governed by the Brits still. All that fighting to get away from one tyranist to be governed by another bunch of tyranist. Since when have we had a government for the people and by the people, I’ll tell you its been a really long time since our government was for the people.