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I’ve been trying to parse the news explosion around swine flu. It’s still not clear to me if this is a real health threat or if it’s in the family of the buy-duct-tape-to-stop-terror hype meme. So far, it seems closer to the latter. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s what we know:
- A bunch of people have contracted swine flu in several nations around the world.
- It’s easily spread, perhaps more so than other variants of flu.
- Its symptoms are very close to those of “normal” flu.
- More people, including healthy people, have died in Mexico than might have been expected.
- There’s been one death in the US so far.
- Every year 250,000-500,000 die of flu worldwide.
It’s that last statistic that puts some of the others in context. Yes, this seems serious. But if we’re going to panic about things that could kill thousands, here are some other things to worry about:
- Deaths caused by SUVs, which are inherently more dangerous than other autos.
- Deaths due to bad diet.
- Deaths due to smoking.
- Deaths due to gun violence.
- Deaths due to senseless wars.
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