CNN.com provides some flu context
April 29, 2009 11:00 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Not sure if this getting much play on TV, especially the all-flu-all-the-time cablers, but it ought to [emphasis added]:
An outbreak of swine flu that is suspected in more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has sickened dozens of people in the United States and elsewhere has grabbed the attention of a nervous public and of medical officials worried the strain will continue to mutate and spread.
But even if there are swine-flu deaths outside Mexico -- and medical experts say there very well may be -- the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.
Question for Michelle Malkin: are immigrants responsible for all those flu deaths, too?
This is from the CDC. The typical flu season kills many young people. 83 across the country in 2008.
"As of June 19, 2008, 83 deaths associated with laboratory-confirmed influenza infections have occurred among children aged < 18 years during the 2007--08 influenza season that were reported to CDC. These deaths were reported from 33 states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). Among the 83 cases, the mean and median age was 6.4 years and 5.0 years, respectively; seven children were aged < 6 months, 16 were aged 6--23 months, 18 were aged 2--4 years, and 42 were aged 5--17 years. Of the 79 cases for which the influenza virus type was known, 51 were influenza A viruses, 27 were influenza B viruses, and one had co-infection with influenza A and B viruses. Of the 63 cases aged 6 months and older for whom vaccination status was known, 58 (92%) had not been vaccinated against influenza according to the 2007 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations. These data are provisional and subject to change as more information becomes available. "
Personally, I think flu awareness is good, but the media thrives on scaring people into watching their shows. So a litle more context would be prudent, but not likely.
In reich-wing world, all of the world's problems can be blamed on brown people, liberals, George Soros, the ACLU, the NYT, and Bill Clinton.
That is very interesting, and it does provide a more sensible contest.
There's also the matter of whatever number of people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with this current flu, and of how many of them are hospitalized: it's my impression that very few (maybe even just one or two) currently require hospitalization due to their illness.
That provides a context to the severity of this particular illness in those that have it, and of course the other number, of 36,000 deaths annually to 'cold and flu season' influenza, that provides a context to the number of 'swine flu' influenza cases currently reported... but there's nothing like reporting on doomesday and the end of the world, to keep people's eyes and ears glued to the television, is there.