Swine Flu Panic

Unfortunately, the number of people testing positive for H1N1 has risen to over 1,000 here in India. There were a few cases when I arrived in June, and I was even screened before I was allowed to leave the airport. Last week there was the first fatality related to swine flu and this week the first death in Tamil Nadu- a 4-year-old who lived… at the apartment complex in Chennai I was living in for the first two months I was here! The government has quarantined the entire apartment complex so I’m happier than ever that I’ve been in Coimbatore for the last two weeks! I’m having nightmares of going crazy quarantined in my flat for an indefinite amount of time so I’m relived I got out just in time. The quarantine seems like a drastic measure to me, I don’t think that they would do this back home. However, I also realize that population density is so much greater here than it is in the US that the flu does have the potential to spread at a much quicker rate.


I see many similarities between the way swine flu is being treated here and back home by the media. As many of you know, I am often very critical of the media, how it focuses on sensational stories rather than substance (look what happened to coverage of Iran as soon as Michael Jackson died, or what happens to real political news as soon as there is a sex scandal involving a politician) and when it does have a real news story, it often blows it out of proportion and uses it to create fear. I was strongly critical of the US media’s initial reaction to swine flu in the spring for this reason. Unfortunately, the same thing seems to be true here. Swine flu is an easy story and most important, it SCARES people, and scared people buy newspapers. I’ve seen the words crisis, pandemic, epidemic, catastrophic and disaster used way out of proportion when talking about swine flu. The pictures they use are equally alarmist- biohazard suits, children laying deathly ill in beds, and masses of people on the streets with surgical masks on. Again, swine flu is a real problem, no one has immunity because it is so new, but it seems not many more people die from this strain of flu than any other kind. I wish the media would consider that even though they can sell a lot of papers by scaring the crap out of people, this is not what journalism is supposed to be about, they could report the facts in a much calmer, more rational way. I’m talking to you both, US and Indian media!

Stay healthy everyone- keep washing those hands!