Swine Flu? Bull Flu!

In the United States, 36,000 people die from the plain-old, regular, H1N1 strain of the flu virus each year. That number can fluctuate and be as little as 17,000 some years and as high as 60,000 another year. 36,000 is an average.

So....

1. H1N1 flu kills 1-in-8439 people.
2. With Utah's current population, that means 264 Utahns die each year from H1N1.*

Yesterday I heard a report that WORLDWIDE about 200-something people have died from the "swine" flu. Swine flu is actually a variant of the H1N1 virus. Only a single person (who was a child visiting from Mexico) has actually DIED from this virus in the United States of America. Even the single confirmed case of swine flu from Park City, Utah was from a child who had already recovered from the flu by the time he/she was officially diagnosed.

Why is everyone, including the Obama administration making such a huge deal out of this? I understand that should this virus mutate again, it COULD turn into a much more serious strain. But virus mutation could also happen with a hundred other variants of viruses throughout the world. That's the nature of a virus. My bet is that the Obama administration has some other hidden agenda that will reveal itself in the coming months. Just wait....we'll see.

When 264 Utahns and 50,000 Americans have died within a year of the swine flu, then I'll worry. A little.




*Current US population=303,824,640; Current Utah population=2,233,169