Swine flu causing more panic than pandemic

If we are indeed facing a pandemic, we need to demonstrate global solidarity. In our interconnected world, no nation can deal with threats of such dimension on its own.

This was the appropriately cautious admonition UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon issued yesterday after the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised its alert level for a global flu pandemic to 4, which signals:

…significant increase in the risk of a pandemic.

Unfortunately, the reaction of governments around the world, to say nothing of the way the media are hyping this outbreak, is making a mockery of any effort to express warranted concern without causing alarm.

Indeed, government officials and news reporters are doing more to cause a panic than I suspect this virus will do to cause a pandemic.

For example, even though there hasn’t been a single Swine-flu death reported in the US, the EU has issued an advisory against traveling here; and other countries, including Russia, have issued a ban on importing US pork (on the plainly misguided assumption that because it’s called the swine flu, pigs must be carriers).

Frankly, even the US is contributing to this growing state of panic by issuing an advisory against traveling to Mexico. Although, to be fair, the US had little choice after the Mexican government effectively quarantined its own country in a quixotic attempt to contain this virus that has killed over 150 people there.

But is it really news that a few people in Asia or New Zealand have caught the flu…?

Meanwhile, far too few government officials and reporters are bothering to assure the public that this outbreak is no more deadly than the garden variety flu that kills over 36,000 Americans every year.  And, even though it’s a new strain, the fact that over 99% of the people infected worldwide have recovered indicates that this Swine flu is no more likely to grow into a pandemic than SARS or the Avian flu.

Of course it was only a matter of time before the reactionary managers of the global economy compounded the growing panic over this swine-flu outbreak by creating panic in the financial markets….

In any case, it seems the only prudent prescription to follow is the grandmotherly advice of washing your hands regularly and, if a fever develops, staying at home and eating lots of chicken soup.

But whatever you do, don’t bother wearing one of those silly surgical masks that have people in Mexico looking like a bunch of Michael-Jackson groupies.  Because, despite Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN wearing one to play the role of a daring reporter on TV, epidemiologists insist they do nothing to protect you from this virus.

NOTE: As soon as another natural disaster (like a major flood or forest fire), or another celebrity scandal (in Hollywood, Washington or New York), or another human tragedy (like a school shooting or death of a famous person) comes along, Swine flu will cease being a looming pandemic.

But God help us if we’re ever hit by a real, epidemiological pandemic instead of these reactionary, rhetorical outbreaks.

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