On the radio driving to work this morning -- the 24/7 swine flu “pandemic” panic.
As of 8 am, WTOP radio reported 150 dead; 2,000 cases of swine flu in Mexico, with 150 deaths. In the U.S., there were 50 cases, with no deaths.
Hmm. From Wikipedia, an epidemic occurs when new cases of a certain disease substantially exceed what is "expected" based on recent experience; a pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region.
So, okay, I guess that in a strictly technical sense, swine flu could be called a pandemic.
But a pandemic requiring 24/7 Chicken Little "the sky is falling” coverage?
Umm, let’s see. Plain old ordinary winter flu kills roughly 36,000 people/year in the U.S. - roughly equivalent to 100/day, year-round. Heart attacks kill about 500,000 Americans annually, roughly 1300/day, every day. There are about 1,600 cardiac catheterizations performed daily in U.S. hospitals (two of them were mine).
And our factotums are obsessing over swine flu. What’s missing here?
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