Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
People also seem to not realize that the Swine Flu broke out in 1998 and it was hardly brought to any attention. Now, vaccines can be produced cheaper and more quickly, and suddenly it became the plague of the 21st century according to the media in the more recent outbreak.
|
The 1998 swine flu was not the same virus as the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, which strictly speaking wasn't really swine flu. The reason the 2009 virus got more attention was because its epidemiology was so different (greater effect on young people, less on old people), it was spreading very quickly and at a different time of year than most influenza outbreaks, and initial indications were it might have high mortality (and it did turn out to have abnormally high mortality for young people - but lower mortality for the elderly). Did the media over-hype it? Yes - but at the same time it was still a significant pandemic, and could have been a lot worse.