SWINE FLU-IN PERSPECTIVE

I suppose it had to be the porker disease that takes the biscuit this week, but how “deadly” is it?

Simon Jenkins of the Guardian gives his view Mad journalism disease – more contagious than swine flu? Mad journalism disease is now raging through the media. According to a report in the Guardian, Mexico's swine flu outbreak has moved to potential "Armageddon" status. There is simply no limit to the hysteria that scientists and their allies are able to generate round a health scare.

People dying from wars, accidents and even routine diseases such as Aids and MRSA get no coverage. The death rate from flu, even in Mexico, is still at about the normal rate. Yet the mention of the words death and virus in the same sentence is enough to wipe all proportion from the reporting mind. Any risk, however minuscule, is worth an Armageddon headline. It is a field day for scaremongers.

There is no shred of evidence that this flu is worse than other strains or other diseases that have been similarly hyped in the past, notably CJD, Sars and avian flu. Adding the prefix "as yet" to "no evidence" does not get the hyperbolist off the hook. In cases where there is some sense in raising public consciousness to alter behaviour, as was the case with Aids, then stirring public panic might be justified.

There is no such sense in the case of Mexican flu. Those very few people who were infected and travelled elsewhere have responded to drug treatment. I imagine more come back from Mexico with "Montezuma's revenge".
The number of recorded deaths in Mexico itself appears to be on a par with mortality from other strains of flu, from which tens of thousands die worldwide each year, usually from the complication of pneumonia.

It is highly likely that some Britons will get ill from this new flu. It is possible that some, very unlucky, ones will die from it. There is a "risk", as the pundits claim, that this will happen. But how great is that risk? On any available likelihood it is millions to one. Gone is all sense of proportion?

A lot of politicians, scientists and doctors are now getting free publicity. Drugs companies and mask manufacturers are making a killing, despite public advice that masks are pointless. On the other hand travellers, parents and children are being needlessly terrified and those involved in the travel business are being punished with a massive loss of revenue, utterly unrelated to the likelihood of their customers getting ill.

The scaremongering will not diminish that likelihood in any way. At this juncture in the recession, to impose multi-million pound costs on an industry and endanger thousands of jobs is irresponsible.

The only disease that needs stamping out is mad journalism. At a time like this the media should shut up, report facts and tell people what they can do, not create statistically inflated hypotheticals and fantastical scenarios.

Or in other words, it’s just the flu,

“We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.” Cullen Hightower

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