“Pandemic.”
The very word — sharing as it does the same first three and last two letters with the word “panic” — is enough to induce, well, panic. Especially when it blindsides you – “Flu Pandemic Imminent” – in the form of a daily newspaper or internet headline or a TV tease. Especially when most people don’t know that pandemic refers more to geography than science. As in widespread. But not necessarily as in severe.
The media always straddle a fine line. They inform. They warn. And they hype. How else to get our attention? (Unless Joe Biden is also on the case.) And how else to get us to follow their in-depth, breaking-news coverage – and not the competition’s?
To the media, the worst sin is under-reporting something serious. You can’t undo the ravages of unpreparedness. You can only overcompensate next time. The swine flu (H1N1 is too clinical for hard core alarmists) story is, in effect, part of ongoing “next time.”
Ironically enough, beyond the headlines and teases is a context that is hardly apocalyptic. To wit:
*According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on average 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets seasonal flu each year. More than 200,000 are hospitalized, and about 36,000 die. It comes with the territory: the vulnerable human condition.
*This virus, says the CDC, is not all that different from the seasonal flu that schools deal with every year. Indeed, there is no singular symptom that distinguishes swine flu from the run-of-the-mill, seasonal variety.
*The CDC says the new swine flu virus lacks genes that made the 1918 pandemic strain so deadly.
As it turns out, the flu coverage actually prepares Bay Area residents for more than influenza. It also helps us manage our media expectations as print and electronic outlets gear up for the 2009 hurricane season. Yes, that means those meteorological Cones of Armageddon and Doppler and Viper updates as soon as West African gusts and choppy waters start affecting wind surfers off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. Just add context.