Published: October 09, 2009 09:40 am      

Flu packs punch, but will H1N1 deliver on hysteria?

The first shipments of the H1N1 vaccine took off this week, and as I crouched down, having countless intimate conversations with my toilet last Friday, I wondered how much I would give to have that remedy.

Pregnant? That minor detail held nothing to my desire for ending my sickness. Elderly or young? Your flu couldn’t hold a candle to mine.

But since I experienced the flu before anything became available, I was stuck without a solution. I had to gut it out, and I later found out that I didn’t have the hip, media-frenzied swine flu. I was only a victim of the regular flu, which caused me to wonder how much worse the formerly pig-laden named strain could be. (I was almost for sure it was swine flu, since I ate pork the night before. I figured it was the pig’s final stand before I officially devoured it.)

Now this is by far the earliest I’ve ever gotten the flu. Around the country, many people have already been affected by not only the flu, but by the H1N1 strain. So should we panic?

We went crazy in the spring, only to find ourselves overblowing the disease by almost a mile. Stories were run about a mass pandemic and some people lined the streets with masks covering their faces, keeping them from catching the strain.

Will it live up to the hype this time? Time will tell, but health officials and the government have been in full force to help spread the news about the spread of the virus.

I’m still not convinced it will be even close to as bad as the national media and the government want to portray it to be, but I understand the thought process behind wanting to warn people about the disease.

But what if it doesn’t take off again? Citizens can understand one overblown prediction, but to do it again, will only desensitize people more to the point that when they actually do need to be prepared, they will not heed the warnings.

Just think back to when you were a kid and your parents made empty threats. After awhile, you knew better than to follow the warnings.

The best weapon to help people make educated decisions regarding the possible outbreak is for health officials and the government to make teaching tools available to citizens. Luckily, many hospitals have set up educational forums to help people understand the risks involved with taking and not taking the vaccine.

Some people are worried about the lack of research time made available for the vaccine. Whether that is an unfounded conclusion, it should be addressed and explained clearly how the vaccine came about and the possible dangers associated with it.

We’ll see over the next few months whether this form of swine flu has more bite than its spring counterpart. Regardless, I’ll be ready, even it means that I have to wash my hands raw until March.



Scott Levine is the Associate Editor of the Clinton Herald. He can be reached at scottlevine@clintonherald.com.