Once again public attention has been taken off of real news by the media’s excessive coverage of “Swine Flu”.

This new strain of influenza is only being heavily publicized as Western nations have had confirmed cases. Influenza related death is more normal than the public is led to believe and quite higher than this most recent outbreak.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO),“annual epidemics result in about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.” These numbers are starkly different from the 935 confirmed cases and 23 confirmed deaths from the most recent H1N1 outbreak.

Certainly there is credibility in the media reporting this story, but the focus is so finely fixed when many people will not be affected by this disease. This latest flu strain is more newsworthy as it is unknown to health professionals and time is an indicator of whether a widespread outbreak occurs.

WHO has declared that a “pandemic is imminent” but has not given any further information to people as to where most widespread outbreaks will occur and what the appropriate protocol is for individuals to follow. Is this another attempt to create fear and tame the public?

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