This swine flu hysteria is ridiculous. We’ve got Egypt slaughtering pigs, Mexico shutting down its economy, Rush Limblob and the right-wing fucktards blaming Mexicans, Obama and the Democrats for the “pandemic.” Frankly, the World Health Organization (WHO) isn’t helping at all by raising the “pandemic” alert, and the Media, who never met a fake crisis they couldn’t beat to a pulp 24/7, continues the pile-on.
Of course, the left is not without their share of the idiocy. I got at least two emails saying that Republican foot-dragging on Kathleen Sebelius’ confirmation as HHS Secretary was putting the whole country in peril from the deadly menace, because, well, you know, without Sebelius no one else in local and federal government and the multiple health agencies has a clue as to What To Do. Sheesh. Of course, it might have been helpful if Obama had already nominated a Surgeon General or someone to head for the Centers for Disease Control. He has not. But that hasn’t caused the outbreak.
And seriously, what big threat are we talking about here? What of this word “pandemic” that keeps getting thrown around?
Pandemic: An epidemic (a sudden outbreak) that becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a continent, or the world.
By contrast:
- An epidemic affects more than the expected number of cases of disease occurring in a community or region during a given period of time. A sudden severe outbreak within a region or a group as, for example, AIDS in Africa or AIDS in intravenous drug users.
- An endemic is present in a community at all times but in low frequency. An endemic is continuous as in the case of malaria in some areas of the world or as with illicit drugs in some neighborhoods.
The word “pandemic” comes from the Greek “pan-”, “all” + “demos”, “people or population” = “pandemos” = “all the people.” A pandemic affects all (nearly all) of the people. By contrast, “epi-” means “upon.” An epidemic is visited upon the people. And “en-” means “in.” An endemic is in the people.
“…affects nearly all (nearly all) of the people.” Really?
I pulled the actual numbers of confirmed and suspected swine flu cases along with confirmed deaths and merged with current population numbers for the affected countries. I then calculated the number of suspected cases as a percentage of population as well as the number of deaths as a percentage of population. Here’s what I came up with:
| Country | Population | Suspected cases | Total deaths | Lab confirmed cases | Deaths as % of Pop | Suspected as % of Pop |
| Australia | 21,007,310 | 111 | 0.0000% | 0.0005% | ||
| Austria | 8,205,533 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| Argentina | 40,481,998 | 12 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Brazil | 196,342,587 | 20 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Canada | 33,212,696 | 6 | 19 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| Chile | 16,454,143 | 8 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Czech Republic | 10,220,911 | 3 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Colombia | 45,013,674 | 11 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Costa Rica | 4,195,914 | 2 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Denmark | 5,484,723 | 12 | 0.0000% | 0.0002% | ||
| Dominican Republic | 9,507,133 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| El Salvador | 7,066,403 | 2 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| France | 64,057,790 | 20 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Germany | 82,369,548 | 6 | 3 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| Guatemala | 13,002,206 | 3 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Honduras | 7,639,327 | 5 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% | ||
| Iceland | 304,367 | 2 | 0.0000% | 0.0007% | ||
| Ireland | 4,156,119 | 4 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% | |
| Israel | 7,112,359 | 1 | 2 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| Italy | 58,145,321 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Malaysia | 25,274,133 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Mexico | 109,955,400 | 2,498 | 168 | 97 | 0.0002% | 0.0023% |
| Netherlands | 16,645,313 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| New Zealand | 4,173,460 | 44 | 16 | 0.0000% | 0.0011% | |
| Norway | 4,644,457 | 5 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% | ||
| Panama | 3,309,679 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| Peru | 29,180,899 | 3 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| South Africa | 48,782,755 | 2 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| South Korea | 48,379,392 | 4 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | |
| Spain | 40,491,051 | 84 | 13 | 0.0000% | 0.0002% | |
| Sweden | 9,045,389 | 13 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% | ||
| Switzerland | 7,581,520 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| United Kingdom | 60,943,912 | 70 | 8 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% | |
| Uruguay | 3,477,778 | 1 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| United States | 304,228,257 | 400 | 1 | 109 | 0.0000% | 0.0001% |
| Venezuela | 26,414,815 | 3 | 0.0000% | 0.0000% | ||
| TOTALS | 1,376,508,272 | 3,355 | 169 | 275 | 0.0000% | 0.0002% |
Now, do you even see Egypt listed? So why the hell are they slaughtering pigs? Especially since the strain of swine flu that is affecting humans hasn’t even been found in swine? Good gawd, they are as clueless as the Israeli health minister.
169 deaths out of a total population of one billion three hundred seventy six million five hundred eight thousand two hundred seventy two people.
3,355 suspected cases. 2 ten-thousandths of the total population of the affected countries. Now, let’s assume that it is possible that the number of actual cases may be 100 times that. That would still only equal 2 one-thousandths of the population!
Here is some perspective. And it comes straight from the World Health Organization’s web site:
Malaria: scope of the problem
- About 3.3 billion people – half of the world’s population – are at risk of malaria.
- Every year, there are about 250 million malaria cases and nearly one million deaths
- People living in the poorest countries are the most vulnerable.
Here’s some more perspective from the L.A. Times
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.
In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
[...]
The swine virus does appear able to spread easily among humans, which persuaded the WHO to boost its influenza pandemic alert level to phase 5, indicating that a worldwide outbreak of infection is very likely. And the CDC reported on its website that “a pattern of more severe illness associated with the virus may be emerging in the United States.”
“We expect to see more cases, more hospitalizations, and, unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths from the outbreak,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Wednesday on her first day at work.
But certainly nothing that would dwarf a typical flu season. In the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die — a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%.
So everyone, take a chill pill. Even if you do get it, you’re probably just in for a couple of miserable days.
In Illinois the number jumped from 11 to 41 in one day, so it is spreading…but not any more than any other flu would spread, it seems.
What really gets me is that some of the schools in Illinois are closing, and yet, my daughter told me that my granddaughter’s school has NEVER allowed the kids to bring the anti-bacterial gel to school because…get this….it has alcohol in it. I guess they figure the 8 year olds will be downing the stuff with their fruit snacks or something. Also, my daughter who has always been a huge hand-washing advocate said that my granddaughters teacher won’t allow the kids to wash their hands during the day. They can if they happen to go to the bathroom, but no special trips to wash their hands after lunch or after playing on the playground. Needless to say, flu and cold virus’ run rampant in that school.
Instead of closing the schools, if they would just take some common sense measures to control the environment, the kids could continue their school year and the parents wouldn’t have to scramble to find babysitters for them while they are at work.
Thank you! I haven’t seen any panic in the people I’m around. They’re washing their hands and using hand sanitizer a bit more, but that’s worthwhile practice at any time.
Swine flu is way, way down on my list of worries, far below:
- a fatal asthma attack triggered by someone else’s cigarette smoke or perfume
- getting run over by an impatient idiot who can’t wait for a woman with a cane to cross the street.
In fact, my swine flu fear ranks just above:
- dying from shock at winning a huge Mega Millions jackpot
In other words, not too concerned.
So nice to see some sanity. Part of the problem is that most(?) people simply do not understand risk. For a couple of generations, now, critical thinking and logic and ethics and compassion seem to have been dismissed by society as a whole. They have been replaced by pursuit of material wealth, celebrity worship, self-absorption, and techno-centricity (I think I just coined a new term!). Ugh.
Really–wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. All I ever needed to avoid a pandemic I learned in kindergarten. Okay–that was an oversimpliciation, but I’m sure the readers of this blog get my point.
Of course, if Teh Malaria was affecting good white ‘Murcans it’d be a hairs on fire news story, too.
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