Media Again in Panic Over Swine Flu

With so many real potential disasters looming, isn't it odd that the national news media goes into panic mode, once again, on the A(H1N1) flu?

With only three deaths to report thus far, British authorities are warning of the potential for "40 deaths a day" and 100,000 new cases a week.

The World Health Organization -- "WHO" are you? -- says this flu is now unstoppable.

Parents think twice about sending kids to camp.

Hong Kong finds its first case of Tamiflu resistant flu.

The proper responses to these reports, in order, are:

1) Give me a frickin' break!

2) Well, duh!

3) You run a greater risk of a bad traffic accident on the way to and from camp than actually contracting, or dying from, the flu.

4) It's about time.

This flu isn't very lethal. Not so much as the seasonal flu. It may get that way, but the best thing that could happen to people is to contract a case now, develop an immunity to it and get well. No Big Brother government program required. That British and U.S. officials are coordinating this "crisis" is a joke. On us.

If ever the World Health Organization is required to stop an actual pandemic, God help us all. Of course the flu is by now unstoppable. It was probably already unstoppable when we first heard about it last winter, and WHO as well as most other nations did damn near next to nothing to halt its spread. In fact, Mexico was the only country that I witnessed actually trying to do something effective. Mexico!

When you read the camp story, you realize that they are focusing in on camps where they are kids with pre-existing conditions that would make even a mild flu very dangerous. For your average healthy youngster, not going to camp would probably be more of a health hazard. In camp you get your sunshine, your Vitamin D boost, which is an immunizing agent for the human body. Send the kid to camp! They'll enjoy it, probably; you'll enjoy the quiet of their absence. Everyone will be glad when it's over.

As for Tamiflu resistance, it doesn't work in some people, and for people who have taken Tamiflu before there is a small but significant percentage who develop resistance to the vaccine. That doesn't mean the flu has developed anything. It's a statistical probability that such cases would show up.

This particular flu may turn into something ugly next winter, or the winter after that. But it isn't going to happen in the summer months because that's not the way of flu epidemics and right now, if you are healthy, getting a mild case of the mild version might be the best thing that could happen.

So let's worry about something else for awhile, okay?