Articles
Swine Flu: We Went a Little Crazy But We Didn't Die
Today, Harper's takes a look back at the swine flu hysteria that dominated the week of April 27th: "Swine flu, renamed under pork-lobby...
05.08.09
It's easy to see this as an example of media-fueled hysteria, as Harper's seems to do. And complaining about the reactions of cable news, or Joe Biden, is fair. (But who'd expect carefully moderated statements from either of them anyway?)The more important point is that the reaction from public health officials was good. Here's a quick refresher: On April 14th, the CDC received a specimen of a mysterious flu strain from a boy in San Diego. A second San Diego specimen came in soon thereafter. The CDC knew there was a new and unusual flu in San Diego. A few days earlier, Mexican health officials had warned the CDC that they were seeing a deadly "unexplained respiratory illness." The CDC began to investigate whether there was a connection between the San Diego flu and the Mexican outbreak. On April 23, the CDC confirmed that they were the same "swine flu," that it posed an unknown (but potentially serious) risk, and convened a teleconference with public health authorities from all 50 states.Swine flu spread pretty quickly. By the end of the week there were confirmed cases in New York, Europe, China, and beyond. The number of deaths has been low, but if the strain had been really bad, it would be a different story. More importantly, it took time to figure out that this swine flu wasn't so bad. In the meantime, the CDC and the WHO and health authorities in countries all over the world reacted quickly to prepare for a worst case scenario. Isn't that what we want from the people who are responsible for public health?