Miss Kolka

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swineflu - what are we to think? | 13 août 2009

We had been waiting for this since early 1997- a human birdflu and something contagious enough to make alot of people sweat (literally) . Oh, and when I say "we" I mean the people in news media of course, which incendently Im not part of anymore, unless you count citizen journalism for anything.

The trick is now to filter the information. Apparently what everybody seems to agree about is that a pandemic (or alot of cases) is inevitable this autumn. It is going to affect socities worldwide but how important or dangerous this impact is going to be, is hard to say. If the H1N1 virus stays as it is, it is not that deadly, and actually less than the more common influenza we have known for years. There seems to be conflicting reports about how deadly exactly the swineflu is. There have been stories about "healthy young individuals" dying of the virus. These are normally not considered at risk with normal influenza where it is the very young, sick or very old that get gravely ill. But I could not give you any examples and in some cases it has come out that this or that person actually did have some other healthproblems exc. Its not very clear.

The French, always very up to date on medical progress and a huge pharmaceutical country report alot on the swineflu. The education minister has said he would not hesitate to close schools to stop the spreading of the virus. Doctors and researchers, often asked for their opinions say that more has to be done, transport systems might shut down and hospitals be under alot of pressure. Im not saying that these sometimes alarmist specialists are all linked to the big pharamceutical companies who happen to produce Tamiflu in enormous quantities (the wonder drug against the flu, which I thought was caused by a virus and so by definition there wasn't much you could do once you had it) - How much money are we talking about that governments are spending on the drug, billions of euros? But it is not to be forgotten when informing yourself on the disease.

Some say that the virus is bound to mutate and become more deadly and dangerous. What do we know? Until it happens, there is no way of knowing and by that time, if this strain of H1N1 is as contagious as it is said to be, almost half of the world will be immune to the new strain.

So is it worrying? Of course. Because the media tell us everyday. But they are also having a field day. Always a little story that can be found on a slow news day. And like me, manytv-producers like disaster scenarios. I just don't think that we realise that we are not all jake gyllenhal, the hero that survives the semi-end of the world. And frankly, the swineflu hasn't come to that, yet.

Publié par Kolka à 18:08:08 dans Miss Kolka | Commentaires (0) | Permaliens