Swine flu has infected everyone in the United States. But it’s not swine flu itself that has been spreading like a pandemic – it’s the panic-stricken rhetoric associated with the disease. Almost all news organizations across the country have been infected with a nightmarish outlook of swine flu. Some have been reporting newly confirmed cases of swine flu alongside evocative pictures or videos of people wearing protective masks. And news headlines are practically stuffed with words or phrases designed to instill panic and apprehension within the public. Here are a few examples: “WHO: Global Pandemic Imminent” (CBS), “Pandemic 'Imminent': WHO Raises Swine Flu Pandemic Alert Level to 5” (ABC), “World flu epidemic fear rises, Mexicans shelter” (Reuters).
The story underneath that last headline, for example, epitomizes the characterization of the illness as a looming boogeyman of global proportions: “Fears of a global swine flu pandemic grew…and millions of Mexicans hid indoors to avoid a virus that has already killed up to 81 people.” And recent interviews with doctors suggest that Americans are already panicking. On Thursday’s Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio, for example, some doctors reported that their offices were inundated with desperate phone calls by people asking how to protect themselves against swine flu.
The media is only the most noticeable and convenient whipping boy for this overinflated pandemonium. The World Health Organization is responsible, too, for having recently raised the pandemic alert to the second-highest level. This level signifies that a pandemic is “imminent,” an observation which burned like wildfire in media headline coverage. And WHO Director General Margaret Chan stoked these flames by warning that “all of humanity…is under threat during a pandemic.” This observation is true, of course – that is the definition of a pandemic – but it implies that swine flu is already a global phenomenon and that everyone is dangerously susceptible. This “snoutbreak,” in other words, seems apocalyptical.
But people like Dr. Neil Rau, a Canadian infectious disease expert, challenge this panicked perception of swine flu. Dr. Rau claims that the pandemic alert scale only serves to frighten everyone of a worldwide catastrophe, and he reminds the public that swine flu is considerably less dangerous compared to seasonal flu. “I'm really eager to know how much worse this is than seasonal flu,” he said. “So far it's looking like it’s not that serious.”
The facts should be reported plainly and unstained by such transparent hyperbole, says the co-director of the Institute for Emerging Infections at Oxford University. She warns against panicking too early about swine flu because we don’t know enough about how the disease is transmitted from person to person. Moreover, federal officials maintain that they have enough courses of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug used against influenza, to withstand even a major outbreak of swine flu.
The biggest illness to which Americans have succumbed isn’t swine flu – it’s media-induced apprehension syndrome, a disease characterized by making people unnecessarily afraid of something. Swine flu is important and newsworthy, of course, and people should be cautious and hygienic to prevent spread of the disease. But this media-induced syndrome catapults basic suggestions like washing one’s hands into frenetic protections against some invisible demon. The pork industry is expecting a drop in sales, for example, because people mistakenly believe that they can contract swine flu from eating pork.
Thankfully, there is a vaccine against this media-induced apprehension syndrome. The vaccine doesn’t involve making an appointment with your physician or swearing off bacon and pork chops. The vaccine is simply good common sense.
