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Last line of the article: > Common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year worldwide, far more than the current outbreak of swine flu. But ther
by radu_floricica 18y ago
Last line of the article:
> Common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year worldwide, far more than the current outbreak of swine flu. But there is a vaccine for seasonal flu.
So unless I'm missing something _big_ here, like how much more contagious it is, or how much greater the fatality rate is... none of which is said clearly in the article... it really sounds like just media scare.
- bretthoerner 18y agoI agree with that, but the WHO isn't the media. The media is reporting their change to 5, I quote "Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."
- radu_floricica 18y agoAnd by their definition it is a pandemic (I was just about to quote your earlier post to you :) ). It's just that a pandemic is not necessary something with a high fatality rate. After all is said, we would just have a different strain of flu floating around. I'm guessing the lack of a vaccine makes some people nervous in case it mutates and becomes more virulent, but from a practical purpose that's at least two maybe's away from a real problem, with a vaccine which is probably not so far away. So pandemic, maybe. A problem for the average joe? Not even close.
- marcusbooster 18y agoI don't know if it's a scare, I think the media is reporting on what most people consider something of interest. This particular article, along with the line you quoted, I think access the situation realistically. Now all the twitter gossip I would consider scare mongering.