Posted 5/03/2009 01:00:00 PM by Douglas

I'm shocked, SHOCKED to learn that pig flu isn't as bad as the fear-mongers would have you believe.

When the World Health Organization raised its swine flu threat level last week to suggest the first pandemic in more than four decades was imminent, the group’s director warned that “all of humanity is under threat.”

Across the country, it’s looked like that. School closings will keep more than 300,000 Texas students at home this week. Stores have sold out of masks that experts don’t recommend. Sports events and concerts have been canceled. Headlines have warned that “Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery.”

By the week’s end, an increasing number of experts were questioning whether it was overreaction.

“I don’t see anything to justify this panic,” said Robert Krug, a flu researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. “From all the evidence, this doesn’t look like a particularly lethal virus. People need a little more perspective.”

SARS, bird flu, now pig flu. Maybe global pandemics are something most people should keep in the back of their minds, but it's certainly NOT something the media, fueled by the CDC, needs to worry about on a daily basis. 35,000 Americans die, every year, from influenza. 400 infections and less than 50 deaths in Mexico doesn't strike me as a reason to cry the sky is falling.

Labels: pig flu