Swine Flu Panic...You Can Thank The Media For This One!

When it comes to the swine flu, if you believe what you see on TV, read in the papers or stumble upon on the Internet, it’s only a matter of time before we will hear cries of, “Bring out your dead” from the streets below.

Relax. No matter what the news actress spouts on the tube, this is not a rerun of the 1918 killer flu.

To begin with, no one can say with certainty how many have been inflected by H1N1. Since August 31st patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms have been counted as swine flu cases. Specific testing for H1N1 was deemed too expensive to do it on every case. What passes for testing now is a nasal swab, which will only confirm that influenza is present. It doesn’t identify the strain of flu. But for our 24 hour news cycle media that fact is considered a minor technicality. Instead it’s reported that the CDC stated that 5.7 million Americans were infected by the H1N1. Actually the CDC said that between 1.8 million and 5.7 million were infected. To get the top number the CDC took the total number of confirmed cases and multiplied it by 80. That’s right…80. That’s based on the assumption that for every confirmed case, 80 had it and toughed it out. If that’s true, it sounds like a fairly mild virus.

And those assumptions and their underlying numbers have been brought into question. CBS completed a three month investigation that reviewed the CDC’s lab results for suspected flu samples from all 50 states. H1N1 was only a small percentage of the suspected samples. That means the real swine flu numbers could be a fraction of the official report. The fact is, when it comes to the number of swine flu cases, no one knows. So don’t let the numbers rattle you. It’s just an opinion, not a hard fact.

Still, night after night, we hear nothing but stories of clinics overrun by panicked mobs demanding vaccines. It makes for good television. It gets viewers’ hearts racing. It freaks people out.

It’s time to put this in perspective. The president stated that 1000 Americans lost their lives because of swine flu. Last week it was reported that 114 were under age 18 [labeled children]. That’s tragic. Unfortunately, people die tragically from a multitude of unexpected illnesses every day. From a statistical perspective, 1000 deaths in ten months is a small crisis. Every year, 200,000 die from medical mistakes in hospitals. And you’d better believe that includes a lot of children. Imagine if we put the same time and effort into solving that problem. How many lives could we save? Personally, I think a little bit of public outrage over that issue would be well placed…but that’s a topic for another day.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and clear your mind of swine flu worries. And instead of being glued to your television or laptop for the latest news on H1N1, go outside, enjoy the fresh air and take a long walk. That’s the healthy way to weather any crisis.

— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA

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