Apparently the World Health Organization changed their definition of a pandemic before H1N1. It seems that the rest of the world heard “pandemic” and thought of the old definition which is akin to “plague.”

No surprise that the questions now revolve around who was on the committee that made the decision to change the definition and declare H1N1 a pandemic. Were there financial reasons for that decision? I guess the WHO doesn’t want to say who was on the committee.

The WHO has certainly discredited itself by taking the actions it has. There may well be a true pandemic that really is broadly lethal, but will people listen next time?

It seems now that the declaration of a pandemic had more to do with lining the pockets of pharmaceutical companies eager to sell anti-viral drugs and a rushed-to-market vaccine.

Am I worried about the next pandemic? No, not really. I’m certainly going to be quite skeptical. In the future I plan to look for vaccines that are mercury-free at the very least. I’m more worried about poor quality and contaminated vaccines.

This is sort of ironic as I am partway through one of my favourite books: Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s about a flu-like virus that escapes a U.S. government virus research facility and wipes out about 99.5% of the human population.

I like it because it’s plausible. It’s much scarier than vampires and werewolves.

What I do think is plausible is that we’re going to hear more BS announcements from the chicken little WHO about how we should panic over the latest virus with the greatest potential for the big pharmaceutical companies to profit heavily.

Some things never change.

*cough cough*

You can’t read very far in the newspaper (or social media, if so inclined) in the last week without finding some story about swine flu in Mexico and how it’s spreading. It’s everywhere and the story has taken on a life of its own.

What do we know? Thousands in Mexico are believed to have been infected with swine flu and at least 152 are suspected to have died, but only seven in Mexico (at this point) are confirmed swine flu deaths. It’s been found in the U.S., Canada, France and New Zealand. There’s also been one confirmed death in the U.S. now. There’s even swine flu in Alberta.

The thinking is that this could develop into a pandemic. It’s at a 4 on a scale of 6 on the pandemic alert level, for what it’s worth. It basically is just a reference to how transmissible it is; not to its lethality.
Travelling to Mexico

It took a while, but the warnings finally came that travel to Mexico is not advised. They don’t want to disrupt world trade as happened during the SARS outbreak in Canada in 2003, but it’s kind of unavoidable now. There are a number of companies that have cancelled travel to Mexico.

It’s probably not a bad idea to avoid travelling to Mexico until things are under control and we all know whether or not we’re going to die from swine flu or not.  If it’s any consolation, there’s a village in Mexico where the villagers insist it’s the swine flu outbreak ground zero.

What’s the real flu risk?

The point has also been made that thousands die from the regular flu every year, with one estimate at 250,000 to 500,000 flu deaths every year. You mostly have to worry about that if you’re 65 or older.

I do worry about these things, but something is going to get you eventually. It wouldn’t hurt to take some typical flu precautions like washing your hands, staying home if you’re sick, cover your mouth when you cough, don’t touch your eyes or mouth, avoid people who are sick and, it may seem obvious, be healthy (exercise, eat well, etc).

So, no matter what happens, there’s still going to be a large number of us who survive. Let’s hope it is the pandemic that never was. If you feel the urge to go root in the garden, please stay home for a few days.