Governments are currently taking action to prevent the further outbreaks of swine flu. Federal officials have stated that deaths as a result of swine flu are becoming increasingly more likely after killing numerous people in Mexico. Yet no deaths outside of Mexico have been reported. As of right now, there are 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States. Richard Besser, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has stated that, "I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection." Cuba has even taken the extreme action of banning all flights to Mexico.
President Obama proposed 1.5 billion in emergency funds to Congress to aid prevention of the disease. The funds would contribute to building stockpiles of drugs and monitoring of future cases. Officials have stated that swine flu cannot be classified as a pandemic as of right now and encourage taking all actions to prevent it from becoming so.
I feel that the government should contribute to prevent further spreading of swine flu, yet the extent to which the government should focus on the disease is debatable. An average of 20,000 people die from regular flu-related causes each year. The severeness of the disease is not entirely known, as no deaths have resulted from swine flu outside of Mexico. The media may be exaggerating the effects of swine flu, resulting in unnecessary panic. While citizens should be forewarned of the disease and the precautions that should be taken to prevent it, the extent of its impact has not fully been discovered and therefore not worthy of nationwide hysteria.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
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I thought I'd comment on this post considering that Mr.Black just left a recorded message on my answering machine regarding precautions that the school district is taking to protect us from the Swine Flu. I feel that all the reports on Swime Flu are accomplishing is widespread panic that is entirely unecessary. This reminds me of the time when everyone was afraid that anthrax would be in halloween candy following the attacks on 9/11. Everyone is so worried about what might happen that they are completely unaware of the facts. No one has died in the U.S. because of Swine Flu. There has been only 64 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the U.S. Our population is made up of more than 300,000,000 people. Even though all of this is true, people are still panicking and the government is still responding by giving 1.5 billion dollars in funds to prevent the spread of disease. I don't discount the effort to protect our health, but at the same time we shouldn't make a mountain out of a tiny pile of dirt
Sometimes I feel like American priorities are just completely out of line. It is crazy to me that something like the Swine flu can get so much attention while much more serious issues such as the genocide in Darfur are rarely talked about. It is estimated that more than 350,000 people have died in Darfur while there are no confirmed deaths from the Swine flu in the US...it all just seems so selfish. Shouldn't we be focused on more serious issues?
I agree with Laura and Aly. All of this news coverage on the swine flu is understandable I guess, but it is seriously just causing all sorts of paranoia and fear. The media has found it's new hot topic. I think it is important that US citizens hear about this new epidemic, but the wrong facts are being stressed. Although this virus is new and not yet fully understood, I think it should be stressed that no one has died. Everyone is freaking out. Pretty soon, people are going to be going crazy trying to buy face masks and the price of those are going to get bumped up. (PS: as a side-note, my dad claimed that he saw a news article on the internet about two people dying in the Los Angeles area. I'm checking now, and I can't find that story. So either my dad has gone crazy, or the article has been removed for some reason...). With regards to what Aly has said, I completely agree. The genocide in Darfur has generated 500,000+ deaths and yet so many people in the US are still oblivious as to what is going on. I think the difference between the genocide and what is happening now is that this flu is an actual threat to US as a country. I've heard people reply that they don't care about what is happening to Africans in Darfur...
I think this whole swine flu is a bunch of baloney, at least outside of Mexico's borders. I mean, essentially they're saying that anyone with flu-like symptoms that a lab test can't match to a "known" strain of flu has swine flu. Many of the "swine flu" cases are nothing more than a small fever and some respiratory stuff. Heck, I had that illness two weeks ago! Could have sworn that it was strep throat, but it wasn't...Kaiser didn't know what it was. So I guess I had the swine flu! Oh my gosh, I could be responsible for spreading a possible pandemic! Someone quarantine me! Except I'm better now, so never mind.
I think that, as usual, the whole swine flu thing is just a distraction from uncomfortable political news. We've heard about avian flu, about "Africanized bees," about anthrax, and now this. Could the fact that the torture memos were JUST RELEASED be a coincidence? Given how many times these panic attacks have been coincidentally timed, I think not.
To piggyback on Aly's comment, you want some stuff to be scared of? Approximately 40,000 people/year in the U.S. die in car accidents. Even in Mexico, only a fraction of that number have died of swine flu, and none here in the U.S. Heck, there is an 11 in 100,000 chance of you committing suicide here in the U.S. That's right, you are a bigger threat to yourself than swine flu is.
Within a month or two, the media will forget that it even talked about this and will have found some other distraction to portray.
I definitely think the media is just exacerbating the panic, yes one person has died in the US, just one. One person doesn't equivocate 1.5 billion in emergency funds, especially when most infected people seem to walking away and only the unhealthy individuals being hit hard and needing more care. What should be done is shut down all traffic to and from Mexico for as long as deemed necessary to hopefully quarantine the disease as Argentina has done, or just wait for a vaccine. I agree with the others in that there are MANY more important ways to spend that money. If Obama wanted to pacify the people he couldn't he have done so without such an obscene price tag?
Does nobody remember mad cow disease or other epidemic diseases? Sure, they might not have reached the United States as badly as they did other countries, but that's because the United States invested in protecting its citizens against these epidemics. These diseases are contagious, hence the term epidemic. We've also seen that these are fatal as well. Whereas it was easier to protect against previous diseases that were centralized in Asia, Mexico's right next to us and it's much more difficult to control immigration from Mexico, resulting in a much greater possibility of the disease reaching the U.S.
We should not be looking at how the statistics in the United States unless you're trying to figure out how well we've been protected against swine flu. The government looks at the fatalities in Mexico, the fact that there has not yet been a cure, and the fact that a contagious disease is in the country that we have the most difficulty in controlling immigration. I do agree, though, with Douglas that so far swine flu outside of Mexico is baloney. An unrecognized strain of a flu doesn't necessarily result in swine flu, but it's definitely not baloney in Mexico. It's in all of our best interests to keep it out of the United States, though.
The swine flu has received a lot of media attention. Lately,i am seeing that the disease isexpanding throughout the world. There as not been much explanation of the disease, i heard something about eing related to pigs. I really don't know. With a poorly designed health care system, the last thing we need is this flu.
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