Swine Flu - What's the Cause for Concern?

In the past few weeks, the media has given a lot of attention to the outbreak of H1N1, also known as "swine flu." Recently, the ten-thousandth case of swine flu was confirmed. Despite the relatively rapid global outbreak of the disease, the number of deaths due to swine flu has been low. With this in mind, I would like to know why swine flu has been such an issue of concern for the media.

Clearly, the outbreak of a serious disease is nothing at which to scoff. However, the media latched onto the story as soon as it could and sensationalized it. It was impossible to watch CNN, MSNBC, or FOX without hearing about swine flu. Yet there was nothing that anyone could do to prevent it other than being careful about hand washing and being around people that were obviously sick.

The symptoms of swine flu were rarely reported. Based on the description given, swine flu is not inherently worse than the regular flu. The people most at risk to get swine flu are the very young and the elderly. Again, this is similar to a regular flu. Why is swine flu such a threat? Other than the fact that it has claimed several lives, swine flu seems no more insidious than a normal flu.

I remember the time after 9/11 when people began to buy tarp and duct tape to seal up their homes from the outside world, believing that these efforts would protect them from a chemical or biological attack by terrorists. Of course what brought them to this was fear caused by media sensationalism following the tragedy of 9/11. The case of swine flu is very similar to this, with some pundits calling for a closure of the U.S.-Mexico border. I feel that both the media and politicians are taking advantage of the swine flu outbreak to further their own goals.

In the case of swine flu, I believe people should follow the simple precautions of washing their hands and not getting too close to people that are sick, and the swine flu epidemic will pass relatively quickly. I cannot be sure of this, as no one knows what will happen. However, I feel like this is the most rational approach and is all we can really do with respect to swine flu. Worry will not help us.