Peter Watts

The death count from avian flu in my state is at zero ... but that number is set to double at any moment.

From Y2K to West Nile virus to shark attacks to environmental woes, it seems that people crave something to panic over. This latest scare about avian flu will soon pass and be replaced by some other mindless fear.

I'm going to die some day. No matter what precautions I take from avian flu or whatever panic of the moment, I'm not getting out of life alive.

Memento mori.

Holly

Well, I think we should take it pretty seriously but stocking up on surgical face masks? Somehow I honestly think that's a little extreme at this point.

Peter Watts

Holly, what have you witnessed so far that makes you believe we should be taking avian flu seriously? The panic artificially generated by the media?
Remember the summer of 2001 — the summer of the shark? It was all you saw reported — until something bigger came along in September of that year.
Take the national and international media's fear-mongering with a grain of salt.

Roland98

It's hard to give the public accurate information without "fear-mongering," and remember that it's not necessarily "the media" who are providing information--they're just reporting it. We in the public health community have been working for ages to get people to realize that flu is a real danger--it's just frequently difficult to get the public to listen. Gruesome diseases like Ebola are much more interesting than something like the flu, even though influenza kills 33 times more people in the U.S. in one year than Ebola has killed worldwide in the almost 30 years since its discovery. Influenza isn't something to be sneezed at (pardon the pun), and it is something we should all take seriously. But IMO you needn't do much more than get your flu shot and have some basic emergency preparation (which, as I've mentioned many times, does not have to be influenza-specific). I think it's as much of a mistake to write influenza off as it is to panic over some "media hype" over the issue.

dancer_rnb

The "media hype" is better than what happened in 1918, according to a book I read about it. WWI caused the government to suppress news about that flu because of fear of "damaging the war effort."

The book also inicated that there were probably three waves of the flu, with mutation occuring between each wave. And having caught the previous version offered somewhat limited protection. So I'm not sure how effective a vaccine might be.

skepticalbip

You are right that flu, like any other communicable disease, is serious. The current hype and furor, however, is counterproductive. It is scaring the shit out of some people over a viral mutation that does not exist yet and may never exist. If it doesn't mutate to a form "predicted" by those hyping it, then what will the public's reaction be the next time the WHO tries to warn of a real problem? Will crying "wolf" add credibility to real alarms? Will it really help inform people about the dangers of such diseases if the "prediction" fails to happen?

It would seem to me that a more sensable approach would be better recieved. Maybe general education to encourage people to stay home when they are sick by explaining how desease is spread would be helpful. Explain the benefit of frequent hand washing. Etc. etc. General information would be much more beneficial than a "scare campaign" (over something that may not happen) that could well convince the public that the "medical experts" are simply full of shit.

Roland98

Where is the "hype?" That's what I don't get. For the most part, I've seen people passing along what we know, what's happened before, and what might happen this time, along with a healthy dose of "this virus is unpredictable, and we can't predict the future."

Wouldn't you rather be informed? Imagine if we didn't say anything, and all of a sudden we have hundreds dead of avian flu in New York City, and it's spreading. Imagine the outrcy. Again, we in public health are trying our best to educate the public, without resorting to "doomsday" scenarios and fear-mongering, but it's a tough line to walk, especially when you have people who hear any kind of "this may happen" statement and start freaking out that "hey, they just said that this will happen!" IMO, a part of the responsibility for the "hype" lies with a misinformed public. They hear one soundbite and start going nuts, when the whole story is couched in more skepticism and "what if" scenarios.

That's been promoted as well, repeatedly. It's hard for those of us in public health to get that message across, though, because it's boring. For the most part, we rely on the intermediaries in the media, and by and large, I think they've done a good job at communicating the basic issues. Really, I've seen heard of very few people who are have had the "shit" scared out of them. It's been emphasized over and over and over that there's no need to panic, that we don't know when or if this is going to happen, and that the best thing to do is to just be prepared and use common sense. I don't know how better to get that point across...? Either we get accused of "fear-mongering" for telling it like it is, or we get accused of "hiding" information about the threat. You tell me how to balance those two.

skepticalbip

The hype is that even though the "predicted" mutation does not yet exist and may never exist, we have been presented with "studies" showing the spread, "predicting" the millions of deaths, congressional hearings, a presidential address, specials on PBS, nightly news dedicating as much as half the program to the flu, reviving tales of the 1918 Spanish Flu and making comparisons with what this one will do, etc, etc.

Even though I had never heard of "tamaflu", I have now heard that many people are trying to stockpile a personal cache of the stuff because of the hyped "flu scare"... So many people that national health agencies cannot insure the availability of tamaflu.

Maybe it's just that I watch the news too often.
Informed? Yes... The information so far is that something like 60 people have died in Asia because they possibly ate chickens or ducks that died from it without even properly cooking them. The disease may mutate to be communicable between humans but then again it may not.

FarmMama

This is just my take on it, from the reading I've done these past few days. GWB's proposal to throw a bunch of money at the "flu" also entails changing legislation so that drug manufacturer's are no longer liable if their product kills a few bazillion people here and there. I think it's a neato way to indemify the drug companies from responsibility while pretending our government "cares" about it's citizens.

jcsd

I'm not a bird, so I'm safe.