It’s back — in hallways, bathrooms, classrooms, gyms, cafeterias and just about every other place in America. And, it’s probably going to kill you.
Just kidding, it probably won’t, unless you are really young or old, or you have a weak immune system. But the flu will make you sick, like it could every other year. Yet every “flu season”, health organizations and many media organizations hoot and holler about “the flu epidemic” and put fear in the hearts of every Joe and Jill Schmo in America.
With that said, health organizations and media organizations should disseminate important flu-related information to the public. In fact, the Daily is running a flu story today in order to inform the public of important campus-related information regarding the flu. However, it often seems as if some media organizations spread flu-related information in a sensationalized way.
For instance, a Daily Beast headline on Google read “A Bad Flu Season, and Worse to Come.” However, the article explicitly stated, “This year influenza looks serious, but it’s still nothing like what a really lethal influenza season can be.” Of course, a headline stating, “Flu Season Not History’s Worst” is not nearly as eye-catching as the former headline.
Additionally, quite a few media outlets have related this year’s flu epidemic to the worst flu pandemics in history. The problem is that an epidemic and a pandemic differ drastically in severity.
According to WebMD, an example of an epidemic is the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic that occurred in 2002 and 2003, which killed about 800 people. An example of a pandemic is HIV/AIDS, which kills almost 2 million people on average each year.
Some media organizations compare the effects of epidemics to those of pandemics, which is like comparing the bite of a domestic cat to that of a lion. Although they are similar, one is much worse than the other and the lesser one must become much larger in scale for a proper comparison.
Furthermore, many media organizations focus on flu-related mortalities. For instance, a NBCNews article reported six deaths have occurred from flu-related causes in San Diego. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 3,140,069 people lived in San Diego in 2011, meaning if the population is similar now, .000019 percent of San Diego’s population has died from the flu this year. The news article did not mention that small percentage.
The CDC does not track flu-related deaths, but it does estimate the number of people who die from flu-related causes each year. From the 1976-1977 season to the 2006-2007 season, the CDC’s estimated flu-related deaths ranged from 3,000 to 49,000.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 315 million people living in the United States. Using the CDC’s estimates, anywhere from .000095 percent to .0016 percent of people in the United States died from flu-related causes from the 1976-1977 season to the 2006-2007 season.
What all these numbers and percentages say is that the flu does kill Americans, but it does not kill nearly as many as some media organizations may cause the public to worry. People should know about the flu and how to prevent it. However, it is equally important for them to know they aren’t destined to die from it this season.
When it comes to the flu and other infectious diseases, common sense goes a long way. Wash your hands, cover your cough, avoid high populated areas and remember this flu season will be over soon. Do all that and before you know it, the next flu season will be here, wreaking havoc and making us think we’re one step closer to the zombie apocalypse.