The vice president of the company that I work for sent an email today stating the new flu policy for the upcoming flu season. Basically it gave some good information that we should all be doing anyway such as:
• Engage in thorough and frequent hand washing. Be sure to use soap and water or alcohol-based solutions.
• Cover all coughs and sneezes. Try not to cough or sneeze into your hands, but if you do, wash your hands immediately with soap and water. If you have children, you know they are taught at school to cough/sneeze into the inside bend of their elbow.
• Do not come to work if you are sick.
• Do not send children to school or day care centers if they are sick and do not bring them to the office if they are sick or if their schools have been closed due to the flu outbreak.
• Contact a health care provider if you have been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with the flu or if you develop flu-like symptoms — fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.
Which then lead to the some one who buys in to the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) of the media. She sent the VP and everyone else an article written by the USA Today with the headline written in scary 36 point bold font that 30,000-90,000 people are expected to die this year from N1H1. Wow that a lot, right? I’m scared! At least I was (not really) until you break down those numbers:
- Total US population is approx. 304,059,724
- Number of deaths: 2,426,264
- Death rate: 810.4 deaths per 100,000 population
- Heart disease: 631,636
- Cancer: 559,888
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
- Diabetes: 72,449
- Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
- Septicemia: 34,234
Septicemia!!!! I don’t even know what that is but there is about the same chance of me dying from it this year. (OK I do now http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepsis )
You may contract N1H1, but your odds of dying from it pretty slim. In the words of John Stossel “Give me a break”