The Mexican government is saying the swine flu seems all but over in that country….fewer and fewer confirmed cases being reported.

True, more cases are popping up in the U.S. and around the world, but experts will tell you that is largely because we are now looking for them.

You see, most–maybe the overwhelming majority?–of swine flu cases are apparently mild to moderate…impacting mostly people under 50…and do NOT lead to death. So much for the “lethal swine flu” we keep hearing about in the media.

Fear before Facts

While the media can certainly be blamed for a lot of the near hysteria we’ve seen in recent days—entire school districts boarded up because a single child had the flu!!!—health officials this time share the blame.

The World Health Organization made a dramatic announcement last week that a swine flu pandemic was probably upon us…without stressing that just because a disease is widespread , doesn’t mean it is severe, let alone lethal!

The head of WHO even said that such a pandemic could “threaten” all of humanity.  That’s heavy!

The facts , however, simply do not support the fear: The virus already seems to be going away in Mexico….the number of confirmed deaths from swine flu there are not even in the triple digits…and no one has died from it in any other part of the world, except for a single infant whose parents brought him from Mexico to the U.S. for treatment, where he died.

His parents, however, notably, did not apparently get infected…and, if they did, their case is so mild, it doesn’t appear to bother them–or anyone else!

Yes, flu viruses are not predictable and this one could very well  return in a feared second wave and really bite us on the ass.  But that is a big “if” and does not justify the over-wrought fear now afflicting us.

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