What Pandemic? The H1N1 Effect

According to the New York Times (Japan Acts to Contain Swine Flu Outbreak), The World Health Organization raised its tally of global confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus on Monday to 8,829 in 40 countries. There have been 74 deaths, 68 of them in Mexico, the apparent epicenter of the global outbreak. At the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, where pandemic preparedness topped the list of priorities, the organization announced that is was not yet prepared to raise the global pandemic flu alert to 6, the highest level.

Most recently Japan confirmed 74 new infections, including in a 5-year-old boy and a man his 60s. As a result, Japanese authorities have closed more than 1,000 schools in and around Kobe and Osaka, cities in western Japan where the infections have been centered. None of the cases has been life-threatening, and there have been no deaths, according to the Health Ministry. Japan is well known in public health circles for being exceptionally nervous about flu. Masks are common on subways because it is considered rude to go out in public without if you are sneezing.

The pandemic's hysteria has died down in the United States, but as schools close from Queens to Western Japan, we must seriously consider what this pandemic scare is doing to nations across the globe. Mexico has suffered devastating losses on their tourism industry, one that may take years for the nation to recover from. Consequently, countries such as Britain and Japan are urging the World Health Assembly to change the way it decides to declare a pandemic because of the panic effect it is having on global populations and economies. There is no doubt that this flu fear has caused major declines in productivity, travel, disruption to education, threatens small businesses, and caused a tizzy at all levels of administration (but at least we got an HHS Secretary out of it). The nations are saying that the agency must consider how deadly the virus is, not just how fast it is spreading, to avoid unduly raising alarm.