The fear is from the unknown and that we don't know how this will play out.
I get it, the hype doesn't seem to live up to the reality but I sincerely believe that we are nearly at the precipice of this pandemic and that we have only begun to understand the impact of a completely new virus that seems to spread very easily.
What is swine flu and how serious is it?
All the fatalities have been in Mexico, where the government is reporting at least 20 and up to 81 deaths from the flu virus. Most of the dead are between 25 and 45 -- the age group past pandemics have tended to strike.
...
New flu strains can spread fast because no one has natural immunity and a vaccine can take months to develop.
The thing about science is that we don't know everything and so rather than wait until it's too late to act, the world health organization is acting precautiously, for good reason. The reason the US declared an emergency had to do with being able to release the fifty million doses of Tamiflu, which seems to curb the severity of the flu. It also can keep people from having to seek out priced gouged Tamiflu online and elsewhere.
I have so many questions regarding this issue, it's not cut and dry and we just don't understand where it can go, it's just not easy to say.
And of course because it's a new strain, it may not mean fatalities but having millions of people sick at the same time can't be good for the economy, any economy. The cost for health care, lack of child care for those who have sick kids, etc. can have a huge impact of economies large and small. Right now if there is a confirmed or even suspected case in a school, it will mean one week of no classes for that particular school. That means lost work hours for those parents.
I'm not advocating panic and if anyone expects the media to behave responsibly hasn't been paying attention for the last ten years. It's like asking the scorpion not to sting you. It's the media's bread and butter.
I'm not paying as much attention to the media as I am to the WHO and the CDC. That matters to me and they are taking it seriously because they can't say what will happen. That's not stupid, it's their job.
What we can do is try to put this in perspective and give people a place to voice their fears and ask questions if they are unsure.
I'd like this diary to be a place for questions and answers, there are a lot of smart people here at Daily Kos, much smarter than I am. So use this as a place to rant, ask questions and clarify things that you may know or maybe even share your stories. There are stories out there that are not very comforting to me.
Thanks to David Brooks for this, that's where I got it!