Thursday, April 30, 2009

Swine Flu?

Ah. Swine Flu. Hmmmm.

In any year, in the United States, more than 100,000 people are hospitalized with flu. And so each year more than 20,000 people, in the USA, die from the flu, or complications related to it. And we are not freaked out about that. Simply a way of life --- each year 35 to 50 million Americans get the flu.

But then, about 500,000 Americans die each year, because they wouldn't quit smoking. But you don't see a total ban on cigarettes.

6 comments:

The Rambling Taoist said...

Last night I read an article online in which flu scientists can't figure out why everyone is in such a tizzy. They made the same point you made about typical annual flu deaths. In fact, several stated that the swine flu doesn't appear as virulent as the general flu that went around this year.

So, suspicious me wonders why the media is focusing on this. It something else going on that they want to draw our attention away from? Like maybe how shitty the economy is and how much of the store we're giving away?

CM said...

As Dean Moriarty would say, "Yaaaasss..."

Unknown said...

And the symptoms for both flus are virtually the same. Just sayin'

CM said...

And it is looking like the variation outside of Mexico is not as bad as they thought. In fact, they are trying to find out why so many died in Mexico, when the rest of the world doesn't have the same kind of fatalities.

The Rambling Taoist said...

Here's a guess. Mexico has lots of peasants with no ready access to health care. If your immune system is already comprised by grinding poverty AND you catch a bug like this, your mortality rates will be far higher than for folks with access to some level of health care.

CM said...

I was thinking along the same lines.