The CDC is starting to sound as though it is not sure that the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic will actually occur. It is now talking about the swine flu being like any other flu, serious stuff which can and does kill people each year, but no more than normal. As reported by the AP:
WASHINGTON — Government health officials are urging people not to panic over estimates of 90,000 people dying from swine flu this fall.
"Everything we've seen in the U.S. and everything we've seen around the world suggests we won't see that kind of number if the virus doesn't change," Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a C-SPAN interview taped Wednesday.
While the swine flu seems quite easy to catch, it so far hasn't been more deadly than the flu strains seen every fall and winter — many people have only mild illness. And close genetic tracking of the new virus as it circled the globe over the last five months so far has shown no sign that it's mutating to become more virulent.
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What is likely: A busy flu season that starts earlier than usual.."
Governments have invested billions of dollars and lifetimes of credibility promoting the speculation that the world would be hit by a pandemic. In the US swine flu vaccine manufacturers have been given immunity from suit. It now remains to be seen whether pregnant women will be given vaccines with thimerosal and adjuvants. It remains to be seen whether the vaccine program will be rolled out in full force in most countries. It remains to be seen whether a possible autism baby boom will be created by a panic driven vaccination program.
autism
When putting together a teacher's guide to science fair projects you can use news stories like this one as examples of resources for project research. You can also use it for demonstrating how panic and fear is used to push through risky treatments in an attempt to increase pharmaceutical sales.
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