EDIT: Note that this post dates from the original outbreak, not the one making news in late 2010.
The potential risks associated with any flu epidemic shouldn’t be taken lightly. People have already died in Mexico, of course, but so far I don’t think there have been any deaths elsewhere – and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
But the situation is obviously being taken very seriously by the authorities. Yesterday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that a “pandemic was imminent “. You can see a news report and read about it here.
In addition, UK television has a new advert – which I saw for the first time this morning – aimed at trying to contain any possible outbreak. You can’t help but wonder if a mere tissue and washing your hands is going to be enough if you generate as much snot when you sneeze as that guy in the clip.
Of course, The Sun is laying it on with a shovel as usual. In today’s paper copy it announces:
IT JUST GOT WORSE: Pandemic is ‘imminent’
It’s current online story is trying its hardest to sound dramatic. It says:
Yesterday a red alert was issued across the planet **” as the boss of the World Health Organisation warned chillingly: “The whole of humanity is under threat in a pandemic.**
Still no mention of the fact that every case so far in the UK has been as a direct result of travel to Mexico. No cases yet of human-to-human transfer. Oh, and unless it is a typo, notice that the WHO spokesman actually said “in a ” pandemic and not “of a ” pandemic. The Sun specialises in this kind of detail. Specifically: ignoring it. Mind you, the WHO is guilty of hyping this up big time.
The Sun also trumpets:
Britain now has EIGHT confirmed cases of the deadly virus.
It isn’t ‘deadly’. The WHO have pointed out that there have only been 8 deaths associated with it (not the 159 reported elsewhere) and all those have been in Mexico (7) and the US (1). This is also blogged by someone here – slightly older data. In the UK, those diagnosed a few days ago are apparently getting better. Bear in mind that in the US alone about 50,000 people die each year due to normal flu.
And on a lighter note, there is this new product available that might just offer the same level of protection.
Oinksip – For Swine Flu
For non-UK viewers, there is a product in the UK called LemSip (a lemon-flavoured drink containing basic painkillers and decongestants) which purports to get rid of colds and flu.
It remains to be seen how bad all this turns out to be. But at least the British can joke in times of trouble. My own opinion is that this is massive overkill by the media. Again. A couple of years ago we were all going to die from Bird Flu and we were only one step away from roasting anyone who’d been to Hong Kong over an open fire. And Bird Flu was actually deadly in 50% of cases. It’s also worth noting that the WHO at that time was saying a flu pandemic was long-overdue and that an outbreak of Bird Flu could lead to 2,000,000-50,000,000 deaths worldwide (that last figure is almost the entire population of the UK).
Of course, before that there was the Armageddon that was the Y2K bug (though that was largely avoided by a lot of work before it could do any harm). And Foot & Mouth Disease . And what about Salmonella in eggs? The media loves to imagine up doomsday scenarios.
I’ve heard that people are boycotting pork already. Idiots.
Parallels are already being drawn with Spanish Flu and the early 20th Century outbreak. No consideration of the fact that no drugs were available to treat illnesses then (many died as a result of pneumonia, and we have drugs to treat that) or that the general state of health was not the same as it is now.
Don’t worry! If it does turn out to be The End Of The World then there’s not a lot you can do. But for me? Well, I’ll be planning what I’m going to do for next year’s holidays, just like always.