"Swine flu police" now? Really? I continue to be impressed with the many different angles that reporters for The New York Times can come up with circling around the dreaded H1N1 strain. With the shortage in vaccines, people are having to be turned away. Children and those with serious medical conditions (e.g. tendency for pneumonia) are first in line for vaccination. People have been lying about their medical conditions to get the vaccine.
Hundreds of thousands of people die from the traditional strain of flu every year. I think the media has hyped the H1N1 strain to the point of driving people into a panic. While H1N1 can be lethal, people who contract the virus but take care of themselves and take it seriously once they have it, can recover fairly easily. I think what is scariest to people is the idea that medical centers are not testing for H1N1 so there is no way of knowing necessarily whether you have a common cold, the regular flu or H1N1.
Hundreds of thousands of people die from the traditional strain of flu every year. I think the media has hyped the H1N1 strain to the point of driving people into a panic. While H1N1 can be lethal, people who contract the virus but take care of themselves and take it seriously once they have it, can recover fairly easily. I think what is scariest to people is the idea that medical centers are not testing for H1N1 so there is no way of knowing necessarily whether you have a common cold, the regular flu or H1N1.
All we can do is wash hands, sanitize, and use common sense. I think some of these people who are freaking out could use such advice. Do you really want to steal a vaccine from a 5-year-old. What if someone stole the vaccine meant for your own child? You might look at things differently.
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