The Daily Mail is off on one. Again.
The front page of the paper version trumpets:
Swine Flu: So Who Can Pregnant Women Believe?
The online version involves a number of stories, but obviously they’re all geared towards having a dig at Labour .
Yesterday, the news included advice for pregnant women to avoid situations where they might increase their chances of getting Swine Flu . Commonsense would suggest that pregnant women should avoid any situation whereby they might contract a potentially nasty illness – colds, normal flu, anything. So the news yesterday was just reminding people who might not be all that bright in the first place to be just a little bit careful. This is exactly what the Health Secretary has said: be careful, just as you would anyway.
All of this is because a woman – one woman – died from the illness shortly after childbirth (at a time when she was vulnerable to such infections and their effect on the body).
Of course, saying nothing at all would have had the journos at the Daily Mail crying for blood. Labour blood. And saying something has had exactly the same effect. No surprise there, then.
There’s a photo in the online story linked to above: people at Gatwick all wearing face masks (I seem to remember some other such stunt during the last Armageddon ( Bird Flu )). Talk about stirring up fear deliberately.
Of course, politicians don’t help themselves. One cannot help but wonder at the mental state of someone who would declare that Swine Flu is a ‘bigger threat than terrorism ‘, as the Home Secretary said yesterday.
It isn’t. Swine Flu is just flu. It’s no big deal – well, no bigger than normal flu. If you get it, you feel ill – like with flu. Some people can die, just like with flu.