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| Yes | 43% | 73 votes | Total: 168 votes | |
| No | 57% | 95 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesAll Americans and people around the world should be very worried about the Swine Flu Pandemic (H1N1). I'm afraid that this pandemic will kill tens of millions of people around the world and up to 90,000 in the United States alone. The seasonal flu kills about 36,000 annually in the U.S.
We are now in the second wave of this pandemic. The first wave was pretty mild. This reminds me of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic which killed 50 million people world wide. That pandemic also had a mild first wave, which was followed by a killer second wave. I think history may be repeating itself with the Swine Flu Pandemic.
A key U.S. government report has given Americans a very real reason to worry. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a report dated August 7, 2009 stating that up to 50% of the U.S. population will get the Swine Flu. Of that, up to 1.8 million will be hospitalized and a staggering 90,000 will die. Still not worried?
The real problem will be getting enough of the Swine Flu vaccines to protect everyone in the Northern Hemisphere. But that won't happen. Even the United States is having trouble getting the vaccines out to the American population. But the real problem lies in countries less developed than the U.S., such as those in north Africa and eastern Europe. But Asia will be the biggest problem with China probably taking the biggest hit. There will be no way that China will be able to get vaccines to most of its 1.3 billion population.
If you compare the United States to the rest of the world, the world death total will be the worst tragedy since the 1918 Spanish Flu. With a U.S. government report predicting up to 90,000 American deaths, that works out to about 0.03% of the U.S. population. But less developed countries around the world will suffer more. Let's say, to be on the conservative side, that 1% of the world's total population of over 6 billion people will die. That works out to a mind-numbing 60 million people dying world wide.
The Swine Flu has demonstrated its ability to circle the globe in a very short time. It also is very easily passed from one person to another, making crowded places such as malls and schools a hot-bed of Swine Flu activity. The Swine Flu death total could surpass that of the 1918 Spanish Flu. If you are not worried about the deadly threat that the Swine Flu poses, you are a fool. And it may cost you your life.
www.whitehouse.gov/a ssets/documents/PCAS T_H1N1_Report.pdf (see page viii of this report)
Learn more about this author, Gary Betts.
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No
The United States is in an uproar over the swine flu pandemic, or epidemic. But is it really something we all need to worry about?
As much as I do agree it is spreading rather quickly, in my opinion the swine flu is not as bad as it seems. We have all heard the symptoms; unusual tiredness, headache, diarrhea, runny nose, sore throat, high fever, chills, shortness of breath or cough, loss of appetite, aching muscles, and vomiting, but don't this symptoms sound familiar? The swine flu, bird flu, and our other common strains of flu all share the same symptoms. So what makes this strain something to worry about? Now that the strain has been released it will be a common illness in years to come. The bird flu was the big epidemic last year, and is still around this year, but because it is old news the fear and news coverage has vanished its being treated like an illness that has been around for years. In my own opinion the bird flu has far worse and serious symptoms than the swine flu.
The government has declared an epidemic and in my opinion is just trying to make us aware and make us take precautionary actions to try to avoid getting and spreading the flu in the off chance it becomes more dangerous and the symptoms become more severe. By declaring an epidemic we in turn lessen the chances for actually having an epidemic on our hands.
Being severely worried about this strain of flu could cause bigger problems. Most citizens tend to go to extremes keeping themselves, their children, and their homes clean. Purell and GermX, Lysol and Bleach kill germs yes, but they kill the germs that help our body create immunities to dangerous illnesses. That in turn, actually makes it easier for citizens to get the flu. Honestly, most citizens in this country are probably either carrying the virus and passing it on, have already had it, or has it right now.
The H1N1 virus or swine flu may sound like a worldwide epidemic, but as we all know, the news tends to over exaggerate the truth. I'm not saying that the swine flu is no big deal, because any virus is a very scary subject, but I don't believe we need to be any more worried about his particular strain of flu than we are with any other common flu strain or any common illness. We need to do the best we can to not spread the virus to those who will not be able to fight the virus well. Keeping an eye on those of us who have the flu, especially children and the elderly should lead to a full recovery in no time and happy healthy Americans.
Learn more about this author, Cory Hamlin.
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