'Pandemic' panic editorial

[Sheri Nakken]

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2009/05/ ... 413398.txt

'Pandemic' panic
The "swine flu pandemic" that never was is receding even in the Third World countries where it hit the hardest, but the international hyperventilation continues. One of the saddest examples comes from Durham and Middlefield, where some parents are demanding Superintendent Susan Viccaro's scalp because she refused to close a school after learning a student had come down with swine flu. But the child had a mild case, never attended class while sick, has been symptom-free for more than a week and is considered recovered. Wish we could say the same for the needlessly panic-stricken parents.

As it is, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week declared the Great Swine Flu Panic of 2009 over, and this week, it reversed its recommendation that schools close because of swine flu. Think about it, said CDC acting chief Dr. Richard Besser: if the virus is established in schools that have experienced outbreaks, then closing them won't help. The better option, he said, is "to really push hard on the personal responsibility": If a kid is sick, keep him home; if he falls ill in school, send him home. What a concept.

Still, the noise from the panic has drowned out the voices of reason. Dr. Peter Palese, a leading flu researcher at Mount Sinai Medical School, says the new virus appears to be similar enough to other common flu strains that "we probably all have some type of immunity. There is no real reason to believe this is a more serious strain." Yet schools continue to close. So it must be asked: Where was all the hand-wringing and school closing over the "killer flu" during the first week of March when about 17,000 Americans had been hit by the run-of-the-mill flu virus, including 26 children who actually had been killed by it?
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm & http://www.wellwithin1.com/homeo.htm
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