I’m still cynical, even in the wake of the first death in Virginia linked to swine flu, that we’re being oversold something here.
The nature of the report from the Virginia Department of Health is fueling my continued suspicion there. Key there is the indication in the VDH press release that the unnamed victim had “preexisting medical conditions that increased the risk of complications from influenza.”
Other than that the victim was a female who was a resident at the Southeastern Virginia Training Center, a facility in Tidewater that treats people with developmental disabilities, we know nothing about her or her preexisting conditions.
But we do know enough to know that we’re also supposed to be scared witless about the fact that a person in Virginia died from the swine flu, whether or not it was the swine flu that killed this person.
Maybe I’m the one overreacting, not the official types. Maybe it’s the vigilance that they’re pushing on us that is keeping this thing from becoming the pandemic that they keep telling us could result from this outbreak.
I continue to be of the mindset that it’s much ado about very little, considering that flu annually kills 50,000 to 60,000 Americans, most of them either children or seniors or others with preexisting conditions that leave them vulnerable to viruses.
– Story by Chris Graham
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