Swine Flu: What A Fuss!

In the UK fliers about swine flu were distributed widely yesterday. Ads abounded and schools were closed.

On TV, pitiful images of kids with face masks, probably terrified, sequestered from the rest of humanity. Now there's a good way to reinforce to our kids that we're there for them.

School closures were intended by the health department as a way to contain the spread of the virus. Many people see it more as a monumental disruption of daily life.

And our wonder-drug Tamiflu? Well it's supposed to prevent the excretion of the virus ... but not all kids in the initiative will take it because of its unpleasant side-effects.

At last count there have been 34 confirmed cases in the UK, 13 of which have been kids. Globally 31 people have now died, all but 2 have been in Mexico.

Experts are now saying it is expected to behave like seasonal flu ... meaning that, theoretically, the only people that should be seriously concerned are standard at-risk groups. That is, babies, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems such as cancer patients on chemotherapy.

Yet, with respect to those who have died, we are still 5 out of 6 on the pandemic scale, with no apparent attempt to qualify this number and give the average person a more appropriate perspective.

Scare-mongering, over-reaction and profiteering may be pandemic ... but swine flu appears to be no more than a disease that reflects problems systemic in global commercial farming practices ... with a name that sells papers.

And I still think it's wrong to treat children like lepers!

Advice to the rational: practice "good" respiratory hygeine (didn't your mum teach you not to cough and splutter over other people?) ... and pick another honeymoon destination until something sexier comes along to whip up a new frenzy.

Swine Flu: Impending Disaster, Or Opportunity?

Tamiflu, an anti-flu drug that works by blocking an enzyme that makes our respiratory tracts vulnerable to the virus, has a shelf life of only 3 years.

Critically, it is also largely ineffective against secondary bacterial infections. And it was these infections which were largely responsible for the huge number of deaths in the pandemic of 1918 mentioned in my previous post.

When used as directed, Tamiflu reduces symptoms by a day or two at best! Hardly a miracle drug. And not without potential side-effects. In fact, Japan banned in use for children in 2007.

Yet, in response to the birdflu threat, the USA ordered 20 million doses (about $2 billion) around October 2005, with the UK ordering 14.6 million doses at roughly the same time.

Big money, for big companies ... fuelled by fear, speculation, maybe even expedience. All justified conveniently by the unchartered territory of potential disaster.

Call me a cynic.

Will The Vaccine Be Scarier Than The Swine Flu?

After a brief respite from my usual sarcasm, I have decided that today's post will, once again, delicately point out more absurdity.

First, I should point out that I know very little about flu, or pandemics, or even pigs. Yes folks ... my post today is about swine flu.

First a little historical context. In the flu pandemic of 1918 it is estimated that over 40 million people lost their lives. This was in fact bird flu and not swine flu. Which is worse? I have no idea. I'm resonably sure it depends on the strain. And I'm also fairly certain nobody else knows either, with respect to the WHO.

Fast forward to 1976, Fort Dix army base in New Jersey. One 19 year old soldier died, hundreds more infected. Predicatably, perhaps justifiably, President Gerald Ford panicked, spending hundreds of millions of 1970's dollars on a nationwide vaccination program.

This vaccine resulted in the deaths of more than 30 people from the paralysing nerve disease Guillain-Barre syndrome ... and who knows how many others incapacitated.

Facing protests, the program was scrapped within the year.

What have we learnt? Not too much, by all accounts. The UK has already ordered over 30 million face masks, even though a face mask offers only marginal "protection" over a window estimated at less than 3 hours. And everyone's gearing up for a pandemic. We're now a "5" on a scale of "6". At the time this level was upgraded, 7 people were dead and person to person infection had only just been established as a possibility.

I wonder if we'll all be forced to take a vaccine and play more Russian Roulette with our lives and well-being?