It's still PanFlu Awareness Week. No panicking allowed!
If you're one of the people wondering what's the big deal with this whole flu thing and planning to trust the corporate media to stay informed, take another look at my teaching case: the mystery illness that ripped through a nursing home in Toronto. This was the AP report on October 5, 2005, early in the outbreak:
Mystery illness kills 4 more seniors
October 5, 2005
TORONTO -- Four more residents of a nursing home for elderly people have died of an unknown respiratory illness, bringing the number fatally infected to 10, Toronto's chief medical officer said Tuesday.
Dr. David McKeown said the outbreak at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged has affected 84 residents, employees and two visitors to the nursing home on the outskirts of Toronto.
Health officials have said they have ruled out influenza, avian flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, and Legionnaire's disease.
Now comes news that by "ruled out," those officials meant "are considering":
A Toronto health official announced that another person has died at the Seven Oaks Nursing Home from Legionnaire's disease. When residents started getting ill health professionals were at a loss to explain what was infecting them.
They weren't at too much of a loss to rule out the disease they're now ruling right back in. But I'm probably nitpicking.
I'm not sure what the moral of this story is beyond Don't Trust the Corporate Media as Far as You Can Sneeze. Alls I can tell you is that I get my news and analysis from two places: Recombinomics (first stop every morning) and Effect Measure. Something tells me that when avian flu does start killing people in earnest, informing the public in a safe and timely manner isn't going to be Job One of Team BushCo. After all, maintaining a calm, protected, well-informed and prepared public really isn't their leaderhip style.
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