Swine Flu: To Panic or Not to Panic
This is just my thought on swine flu. Please do not get offended. If you'd like to speak to me about my/your opinions, please contact me.
To be honest, I don't think everyone should be freaking out so much over swine influenza. It's pretty much just like the common flu, and we even have a fairly good vaccine, at least here in the Unites States. I know a lot of you are worried about it because you've heard of all the deaths and whatnot. However, I've got the vaccine more than 2 months ago (September '09-ish). I have yet to catch the swine flu or die, obviously, as I would not be typing this if I was dead. Vaccines for other diseases don't always work either, and seeing that a lot of people are rushing to get the swine flu vaccine, of course there's going to be a higher rate of hospitalizations and/or deaths.
Thousands of people die from the common cold and flu as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the Unites States, 30 million people catch the seasonal flu every year. More than 200, 000 people are hospitalized due to flu-related problems, and about 36, 000 people die each year from it. So many people are hospitalized and/or die from the seasonal flu, yet no one panics over that, do they?
I think it's really just the idea of a new disease, and I also think most of the panic comes from the media (newspapers, TV, etc.). It really doesn't help that news reporters try to "hype" things up a bit. During the first few weeks of the swine influenza pandemic, most of the deaths caused by it have been all over the news, and occasionally there still are reports of deaths on TV. However, no one ever reports about deaths caused by other diseases, like the seasonal flu. Really, what's the difference?