I am sure the Bush Administration wishes it had peeps online creating striking infographics -- Katrina wasn't so bad.
Still, I can see why the meme of downplaying pig flu is so important. Otherwise, the logical question is why did the parts of the national healthcare system the state already controls perform so badly in producing vaccines.
I am all for the visualization of relational data, but this is somewhat misleading in that for certain groups (i.e. young children and pregnant women) the disease is extremely dangerous. There is no reason to downplay that fact and to vaccinate more vulnerable populations to prevent more widespread harm.
Wow, you're a real humanitarian. I don't think that people blame Bush and Brownie for the deaths as much as they do the piss-poor planning and execution of the relief efforts. The overall cost, financially and spiritually, was pretty catastrophic.
While there is always the possibility of a new flu bug becoming the next "Spanish Flu" pandemic, most new strains peter out relatively quickly. I've read the U.S. loses an average of 30k people per year to the more prosaic influenzas that seem to turn up every year. Dark predictions about a "Bird Flu" pandemic never came to fruition, although it hasn't gone away and people continue to catch it and die. The world is a dangerous place.
As someone who is currently suffering from a bout of H1N1, and is surrounded by morons who have bought into the media-driven fear and are convinced I am about to die, this is the perfect response to their idiocy. Thank you.
@Bill: Good point. Often, the true story is lost in statistics.
@Chief: I was going to mention something along those lines. Swine flu in its current form is not so much a worry as to what might happen if it mixes and mutates with other variants of influenza. Virologists have constantly warned us about that. Since it is the flu season and there are so many versions casting about now, this is the time that virologists fear the most.
I overheard the news utter the phrase "the next pandemic" and my first reaction was "wait, isn't it already here and called 'HIV'?" But I wasn't sure about the numbers, so I'm glad to see some confirmation. I also wonder how much of the TB number is HIV-related.
More people died from cardiovascular diseases than ALL communicable diseases combined. I probably should start going to the gym for the winter.
It's a rather lopsided comparison. There's no vaccine against most of the death causes listed above. There's one for swine flu. Nevertheless, as YH pointed out, the potential mutation is a much higher risk than the current flu itself - BUT: To prevent this from happening, people have to wake up and get the shot so this flu goes the way of the Dodo.
I recommend this article (beside the WHO website):
An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/all/1
p.s.: One observation: Everybody and their mother is taking about H1N1, but many simply ignore *official* sources and instead read and trust opinions from weblogs, abstruse news pages and chain-mails.
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Comments to this entry
Matt
November 12, 2009
4:10 am
Younghusband
November 12, 2009
5:04 am
The sources are listed on the Flickr page for the image.
kurt9
November 12, 2009
6:14 am
tdaxp
November 12, 2009
12:14 pm
Still, I can see why the meme of downplaying pig flu is so important. Otherwise, the logical question is why did the parts of the national healthcare system the state already controls perform so badly in producing vaccines.
Bill Petti
November 12, 2009
12:23 pm
And, Katrina wasn't so bad??
Jason
November 12, 2009
2:33 pm
Wow, you're a real humanitarian. I don't think that people blame Bush and Brownie for the deaths as much as they do the piss-poor planning and execution of the relief efforts. The overall cost, financially and spiritually, was pretty catastrophic.
Chief Wiggum
November 12, 2009
2:39 pm
Carl
November 12, 2009
3:07 pm
Younghusband
November 12, 2009
3:43 pm
@Chief: I was going to mention something along those lines. Swine flu in its current form is not so much a worry as to what might happen if it mixes and mutates with other variants of influenza. Virologists have constantly warned us about that. Since it is the flu season and there are so many versions casting about now, this is the time that virologists fear the most.
Munro Ferguson
November 13, 2009
2:31 am
Kelvin
November 20, 2009
6:16 am
More people died from cardiovascular diseases than ALL communicable diseases combined. I probably should start going to the gym for the winter.
Grendel
November 25, 2009
7:28 pm
I recommend this article (beside the WHO website):
An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/all/1
p.s.: One observation: Everybody and their mother is taking about H1N1, but many simply ignore *official* sources and instead read and trust opinions from weblogs, abstruse news pages and chain-mails.