Scared to Inhale

My wife and I were reminiscing about the various threats to our family the other night. We like to do this at the outbreak any new disease or event that threatens to end life as we know it. We were trying to ratchet down our anxiety level, it has been quite a week.

A low flying Boeing 747 scared the hell out of people on both sides of the Hudson River in lower Manhattan on Monday. It was still too soon after 9/11 for big planes to fly low over New York City buildings near ground zero -- even for a Defense Department photo-op. An FAA memo last week said information about the exercise "should only be shared with persons with a need to know" and "shall not be released to the public or the media." Nobody knows why secrecy was considered necessary for taking pictures destined to be souvenir postcards. However, it momentarily diverted attention from the potential swine flu pandemic and made New Yorkers think that something else might kill them instead.

I couldn't remember which was worse, a "yellow or orange alert level". I thought yellow, since that is a brighter, more explosive color. My wife informed me yellow was only significant risk -- orange was high risk. "But don't forget red." I had forgotten red: severe alert. She then reminded me of the other two; blue, general, and green, guarded risk. I had forgotten them too.

"That's okay," she reassured me, "They've never actually been used -- ever."

There are no published criteria for the threat levels, so there is no way to tell whether a current threat level is accurate. I don't know how differently I would act if I were at severe, high or significant risk.

"I remember when we first met, Legionnaires Disease was the scaring the hell out of everyone," she said passing me a cracker with peanut butter.

I looked at it. She saw the concern on my face and smiled, "The salmonella fear has been over for a while. Don't worry."

I had gotten confused. "E.coli poisoning, that had to do with spinach, right?"

She nodded. It was very frustrating, getting our kids, who hated spinach, to eat it, then telling them to stop eating it -- it could kill them -- then trying to get them to eat it again. If you're a parent, you know what I mean -- which brings me back to swine flu.

Watching the reports on television, it seemed like herds of rampaging pigs wearing sombreros were crossing the border from Mexico spreading swine flu to everybody everywhere. No one is safe. A potential global pandemic is in the making.

Swine flu also infected Wall Street with an additional dose of either fear or greed, depending on your point-of-view: the peso and pork fell, drug companies rose. MarketWatch reported: "Niche makers of antiviral products and vaccines saw shares rocket Monday on news of a possible global pandemic of the swine-flu virus." Bad news for many is good news for a few on Wall Street.

I picked up my cell phone to call a friend who had just returned from China, when I thought of SARS. News footage from China in 2003 looked like "ER: Asia", everyone was wearing surgical masks hoping to not get infected. A survey conducted by the Harvard School for Public Health in 2004 reported that 93% of Americans had heard of SARS. The Center for Disease Control found only 8 laboratory confirmed cases of it in the U.S., most from people who had been traveling abroad. However, I didn't place the call because I remembered a study in 2006 that linked cell phone usage to malignant brain tumors. The FDA posed serious questions about the validity of the study. So much for free rollover minutes.

We were going to take a walk, but the temperature hit 90 and air quality index was considered either "unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous". I didn't know if the air was better inside, but it seemed less risky, besides I can't hold my breath for more than two blocks.

As we reminisced about Hong Kong Flu, Mad Cow Disease, West Nile Virus, Ebola Virus, Avian Flu, Anthrax -- there seemed to be no shortage of health issues that scared us -- especially if we watched television. In the rush to report, a hailstorm of information is spewed out, often without reflection or context. Television does more to frighten than inform us. Variations of swine flu have been here before, in 1976 and 1988. According to the World Health Organization, common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people globally in a normal year. It's a good idea to wash your hands regularly and not sneeze in someone's face regardless of the flu. It's important to have some perspective when you're scared to inhale.

Comments

[leanandsuperfit]

Reminded me when I announced to my friends, extended family and loyal online followers that at age 40 I had gone skydiving. Jumped out at 14,000 feet. What a blast! I'll be doing it again this year at age 44.

Anyway, many were excited for me that I did it but just as many offered cautions about how I better be careful and "Wow, I'd never do that. It's so dangerous!" and "Holy cow you've got balls. That's crazy!"

Going off memory here I believe there are like 21 deaths a year out of 2.2 million skydiving jumps. I believe getting struck by lightning and dying in a skydiving accident are about the same odds. Now, if you want to worry yourself sick? Think about driving your car or eating unhealthfully or overconsuming any of the legal drugs so many of us consume.

[timmcveighjr]

the alert level has been orange for so long now, it should be the new green....

[SharonMcEachern]

Yep, it's a good idea to wash your hand regularly. And Jeff, this will really scare you -- the chances are only 50-50 that the doctor treating you in the hospital has washed his/her hands. I know, it's hard to believe, but the odds are the same as flipping a coin. Actually, it's worse. According to the National Quality Forum, hand-washing compliance rates at hospitals are generally LESS THAN 50 percent.

Hospitals are desperate to get doctors to simply wash their hands and are taking extraordinary means to try and influence them -- including termination threats and hidden surveillance cameras. Ethic Soup has an excellent article on this at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/01/dont-kill-me-doctor-wash-your-hands.html

Doctors not washing their hands was a problem BEFORE the current swine flu epidemic! It sure doesn't make you breathe any easier now that our medical authorities are telling us to WASH YOUR HANDS as the number one preventative against spreading swine flu while knowing that half of them don't follow their own advice. But then, as the Gods they believe themselves to be, hand-washing is probably below them.

[DallasMike]

Dude get a grip and have a drink.

[AndrewAnthony]

When you really reflect it seems as if we have just continued on from one health problem to another...

I guess one crisis after another is what keeps the world going round, not dying off.

Great work Jeff!

[TychoBrahe]

We should remind the media that "life is a sexually transmitted disease which is always fatal".

[Furby]

How true!

[woody1291]

Yes but are you willing to give up sex because of that?

[gobeavs]

OMG we are all going to die.
Rats I was hoping to be taken out by killer bees.

[cutesky]

"The Swine Flu"...oh, I thought it meant that Rush LImbaugh was traveling by airplane again.

[gonbald]

They are building a larger plane to accommodate him.

[SouthernBlueBelle]

Great article. Since I am an oldie I remember all of those great and near great threats. Why i remember when, as a elementary school student and I had "Scarlet Fever". That sounds a whole lot worse than what it was, but the milk man wouldn't pick up the empty bottles from our house because we were quarantined! All it is, is a bad case of strep throat, but it sounded scarey. And here I am, to tell the tale 60 years later. This too shall pass.(for most of us)

[kendraro]

Stop watching the news!!! You can read all about what's going on (right here at HP) and it isn't that constant drilling it into you with the sensation - and speculation - and insane fear mongering that the news shows have become experts at! I can't tell you how much better you will feel. There is something different about reading what's going on that engages the reason center of your brain, whereas, watching those guys on TV - I don't know, some kind of psychic programming? You hear it over and over, it starts to get to you even if you know its just hype.

[MrJoyboy]

The swine flu scare serves to remind us again how stupid most people are.

[Zen0469]

The republican party as well as the swine flu highlights the rampant stupidity that surrounds us.

With any luck at all the former will become extinct before the latter.

[Bitsko]

Nothing personal, but it sounds like you've got too much free time on your hands. But in this economy, who doesn't?

[bigsexyshaq]

Ever thought of changing your name?

[Ross Andersen]

Well said! I sometimes wish I could stop paying attention to the news but I can't. All channels of media are highly focused on the "shiny object" (whatever that happens to be: Swine Flu, low flying jets, etc.) and tend to exclude the broader scope of events or putting things in context. The onus is placed upon us to put things into perspective.

[Dynamohum]

NEWS FLASH - The photo op of any OFFICIAL transport of the Presidential aircraft should be TOP SECRET and not divulged to the public. Public notice of this photo-op could very well have lead to a REAL TERROR INCIDENT. Why doesn't anybody get this? It is simple.

[me again]

You obviously do not live in New York City or you would understand the outrage. The President gets it, so should you.

[peterg76]

Satire, right? You cannot hide a jet, and when the president is not aboard a presidential aircraft is just another plane.

[bunnylogic]

take it easy!!!

[Mannycongo]

Hey, bubba, give it a rest. The fascists are out of office, out of favor at present. You don't have to keep up the "Chicken-Little" act. There's no place in the progressive world for that, nor for that "War on Terror" bullshit either.