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andresito -> RE: when pigs fly (or when their viruses do) (May 1 2009 2:27:23)
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Interesting point(s) in an Australian newspaper -
"...The disparity between the impacts of threats and the panic they cause is remarkable. Even globally, with the exception of terrorism or, rather, the conflicts it has triggered, the tolls are strikingly small by comparison to the threats that are most likely to kill us.
SARS killed 9.6 per cent of those infected, but the threat that paralysed the world killed no more than 774 people, most of them in China, where authorities were slow to react. Then came bird flu, which since 2003 has caused 421 confirmed human cases with 257 deaths. Again, limited infectiousness meant the deaths were confined to a few countries. Now swine flu is thought to have killed 159 people out of a suspected 2498 cases in Mexico, although the World Health Organisation yesterday cautioned that only seven deaths and 79 cases were confirmed.
Mexico is a country of great inequality, with high rates of malnutrition and diabetes in a crowded population, making its people highly vulnerable. In the neighbouring US, which has 64 confirmed cases and hundreds suspected, no one has died yet. One cannot discount the risk of a pandemic, and people's fear of the unknown is powerful."
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/fears-distorting-reality-20090429-ancz.html
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