Pandemic or Hype?
The Swine Flu has caused a lot of panic. It is now best referred to as H1N1 because panicked and ill-informed people and governments have been avoiding and killing pigs under the false impression that they spread the disease (it is only spread by humans - so it would be more effective to avoid and cull them).
But really is it worth the panic? My initial reaction was that its bark (grunt, oink?) was worse than its bite. After all tens of thousands of people die from influenza each year in Mexico alone compared to a couple hundred or so from H1N1. However, as I read about the history of the really big flu pandemic that followed WWI, I see the justification for fear.
The First World War (WWI) killed about 16 million people. That's horrible. But the flu that followed in 1918 killed between 40 million and 100 million completely innocent people in the span of a few months. It affected people throughout the world. It killed some people within hours. Young people and children were killed (just like the H1N1 flu). It first appeared in a relatively minor form, called "three-day fever", with few deaths around this time of year in 1918. That also has some similarity to H1N1. But in the autumn of that year, it came with a vengence in its truly dangerous virulent form.
So it is a damn good thing that people are taking H1N1 seriously.
REF: The US National Archives has released a great collection of photos from the 1918 pandemic. Looking through them is a very enlightening experience: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/
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