Huckleberries Online

High Noon: Swine Flu Pandemic Mild

Posted by DFO

Dec. 8, 2009 12:01 p.m. • 14 comments

Item: Flu pandemic could be mild: H1N1 toll likely to be lower, but vaccinations are still encouraged/Washington Post

More Info: With the second wave of H1N1 infections having crested in the United States, leading epidemiologists are predicting that the pandemic could end up ranking as the mildest since modern medicine began documenting influenza outbreaks.

Question: Did the health agencies over-react to the threat of the H1N1 pandemic?

14 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

poolman on December 08 at 12:16 p.m.
Was it a mild outbreak BECAUSE of the over-reaction / public awareness or was it mild because it is not that bad of a flu for the majority of the population? probably a little of both. People sitting on beaches in Cancun with dust masks - over-reaction, health agencies encouraging people to get vaccinated, wash their hands regularly and cough into their sleeves - not so bad.
ejs on December 08 at 12:29 p.m.
BINGO! Poolman
Smacky on December 08 at 12:38 p.m.
Seems every year, or every couple of years, we have our government leading the chicken little cry over something or other. Last year, I believe it was MRSA. What happened to that? Bird flu a couple of years ago. Did that disappear? Mad cow? Sars? Color me always skeptical, I refuse to follow like sheep.
Cabbage Boy on December 08 at 1:36 p.m.
Indeed Smacky. Not to touch on a nerve EJS, but companies make big money by fanning the flames of public fear. The swine flu was no different.

Coughing in your sleeve is common sense. Rushing out and getting every vaccine is not.
ejs on December 08 at 1:49 p.m.
No doubt flames are fanned, but it works both ways indeed. While none of us were alive in 1918 I’m willing to bet a vaccine then would have saved many lives. Most modern day flu fears are stemmed from that era and the helplesness that came with it. Fanning the flames of vaccine fears are just as bad. Gee I’m sure glad my kids don’t have polio, or hepB, or freakin lock jaw from a rusty nail but hey I expect that some company made money from that.
The great no gevernment groups on one hand want small businesses to thrive and things of that nature but should some company actually make money trying to help people it’s now a big scam. You guys can’t have it both ways, although you try allllllllll the time.
Cabbage Boy on December 08 at 1:57 p.m.
EJS, I got no problems with companies making money. But advertising is much different than pushing your product with federal $$$s.

Last I checked, my company doesn’t have uncle sam spending your money telling schools they should dedicate a day to selling our product.
ejs on December 08 at 2:13 p.m.
Last I recall the shots at the schools was free
Cabbage Boy on December 08 at 2:15 p.m.
Indeed EJS. Someone is paying for that.
ejs on December 08 at 4:33 p.m.
Yes someone is and part of that someoen is me and I do not mind if it should save one person who otherwise couldn’t have gotten it.
Is anyone here saying that the H1 vaccine didn’t work?
Was is a fake vaccine?
If it was then you may have a point, but, if it was effective even if the actual pandemic wasn’t as big as thought isn’t that what we are supposed to do?
OK lets say we knew it was coming and we did and then we did nothing all of you monday morning QB’s would have been complaining that we did nothing even though we knew it was coming.
Have we devolved so much that we can’t help one another especially with a potential killer like the flu. I’m all for stopping another 1918 flu.
ejs on December 08 at 4:38 p.m.
Once while traveling through central WA I stopped by a graveyard to pay some respects. As I walked through I was amazed by all the young people that were gone, people in their twenties. While heading out a woman who was there came over to me and asked if I needed help finding a particular site. I said no but pointed out that there were so many young people from this community that died. She said yes, it was the flu of the early 1900’s.
So some may think H1N1 was a joke or a ploy to make pharma companies rich, OK your entitled but I’d hate to see anyones young adult die the horrible death of the flu.
DFO on December 08 at 4:53 p.m.
EJS; my mother lost 2 cousins in the flu epidemic of (I believe) 1918-1919. The rest of the family survived by moving out into the barn on the property. The flu isn’t a joke. But I wonder if our standard of living and health care, etc., has advanced so much that a major pandemic isn’t as much of a threat as it once was.
Phaedrus on December 08 at 5:14 p.m.
companies make big money by fanning the flames of public fear = Fox News
Phaedrus on December 08 at 5:17 p.m.
My father died as a result of contracting the flu, he was on dialysis and in his weakened physical state couldn’t fight off the flu. 64 years old. But hey, that’s natural selection, right CB, no need we should all pay to insure the public health, right? Screw the too young, the too old and the too weak.
ejs on December 08 at 7:51 p.m.
Dave your right in that our standard of living certainly has helped but viruses are crafty survivors and while our standard of living may be high we are dirty creatures and make ideally wonderful petri dishes. Also Dave you might mean YOUR standard of living in your immediate vicinity but this world is a lot smaller than it was in 1918 and look what having people travel the world for WW I did?
Good fine, clean wealthy people died alongside the poor.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.