Reuters is providing an update from the Center for Disease Control on the spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. According to this article, the swine flu continues to be a significant issue for US health.
In the article the CDC refers to this as “Just the tip of the iceberg” with this explanation:
The CDC said 43,771 cases of H1N1 influenza had been officially confirmed, with 302 deaths.
“But … that’s really just the tip of the iceberg,” Schuchat said. “We believe there have been well over 1 million cases of the new H1N1 virus so far in the United States.”
And if that doesn’t yet concern you enough, the CDC is now telling us that getting the flu during the summer is a real problem:
“I think this is very unusual to have this much transmission of influenza during the (summer) and I think it’s a testament to how susceptible people are to this virus.”
Amidst continuing references to a swine flu pandemic and urges for immunization of the total US population, the Center for Disease Control inserts this little comment:
the CDC would no longer report cases and was working on better ways to estimate how many people had been infected.
I’m confused. With all the concern and intimation that this is a crisis in the making, why would the CDC quit counting cases to replace them with estimates? The answer may lie here:
Huh, the current year doesn’t look a whole lot different than the previous years. In fact, doesn’t the graph for this year look like we have a lower percentage of deaths due to the flu, than we did at any comparable time last year?
I’m not normally a big conspiracy guy but this one has me scratching my head. The only reason I could see to rely on estimates rather than the hard numbers is if the hard numbers don’t support the crisis that you need to remain relevant.
While Rahm Emanuel believes that no crisis should go wasted, it appears that the CDC believes that if there isn’t crisis, don’t worry, we’ll report one anyway!
