Oh, sorry. It’s politically incorrect to call it “Swine Flu” now. The right-wing wackjobs and the Israeli government have decided to call it the “Mexican Flu”, while the powerful National Pork Producers Council has forced the U.S. government to go with “H1N1″.
But I digress. I just wanted to offer a quick look at some handy statistics from the Centers For Disease Control to give us all a little more perspective.
As of the week ending April 18, there had been 55 deaths total nationwide in the previous three weeks from the standard seasonal influenza (All Type As and Type B combined). Somewhere around 25,000 cases of flu had been reported to medical authorities in that period.
Swine Flu: 109 confirmed cases, 1 death (that victim was actually a Mexican toddler brought to the U.S. for treatment, so to date NO mortality among cases in the U.S.)
Also, I note that the large number of deaths in Mexico that had originally been attributed to H1N1 has been substantially reduced to a confirmed number of 7 by the WHO.
If this sucker is going to kill everyone in the world, it’s going to have to make up for a lot of lost ground. The latest rumor being mongered is that the flu will fizzle for now, but come back with a vengeance next flu season. Which is, of course, exactly what the loonies have been saying about bird flu for the last five or six years. It’s always right around the corner, so you have to start panicking well in advance.
