Swine flu, which has already killed dozens in Mexico and sickened at least another thousand adults and children, is now cropping up around the globe. Confirmed cases have appeared in the United States, Spain, Canada, and Scotland. And according to a CNN dispatch, this may be only the beginning.
"Hundreds more cases are suspected," says CNN, "especially in Mexico, where as many as 103 deaths are thought to have been caused by the virus, the country's health minister said. More than 2,000 cases have been reported but not confirmed in the country. Federal officials confirmed 20 new U.S. cases on Monday. A federal official said they were at the same school in New York in which eight U.S. cases were confirmed earlier. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week."
President Obama has acknowledged the potential danger, but argued that so far, the disease is "not a cause for alarm." It's true that the number of confirmed cases is still relatively small (to get an idea of the geographical range, you can track the spread of the disease on this Google map). And after an emergency meeting on Saturday, the Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) declined to raise their alert from Phase 3. They agreed that "that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," but held off any further action until more epidemiological data could be gathered.
That never stopped the folks on Twitter, whose ongoing response you can view here. Some of the tweets were essentially breaking news updates. Said @Alonis: "Nebraska is testing more than a dozen specimens for #SwineFlu right now & in Eastern Idaho four residents are being tested for swine flu." Meanwhile, ABC News correspondent David Wright (in his alter identity as @abcdavid) let it be known that the mainstream media considered the illness a big story, but not the big story: "Swine flu in Mexico and along the border - how scared should we be? Tonight on @nightline. (A hint: we're NOT the lead story...)."
Other tweets were more facetious. @TheWaltWhitman suggested a kind of homeopathic response: "In my day, having #swineflu meant you were hankering mightily for a rasher of bacon and a tub of hog lard in which to dip it." Added @bcbishop: "Seems like it's a good time to re-read The Stand."
The Twitter stream also pointed to some additional media responses. Over at Computer World, businesses were advised to grapple with the possibility of mass, flu-driven absenteeism. "It is important to have pandemic contingency plans that define what you would do if the workforce absenteeism rates exceeded 40% or you had to close your offices. As you develop and refresh those plans don't forget that mobile and wireless technology has a part to play," said Gartner analyst Nick Jones in the CW article.
There was also a somewhat defensive post from England's ThePigSite.com: "The pork industry finds itself with a serious public relations problem that is not of its own making and, in reality has nothing to do with pigs--SWINE FLU IS A PIG/PORK PROBLEM IN NAME ONLY! That is the emphatic word over the weekend from both the National Pork Board, the producer checkoff-funded group charged with promoting pork in the US and US pork abroad and conducting production and product research." Leave it to the "website for the global pig industry" to make this impassioned defense of our porcine friends. But they do make an important point: it is the human-to-human spread of the disease, which often mutates once it leaves the animal population, that is of the greatest concern. The pigs are innocent, snorting bystanders.
"Hundreds more cases are suspected," says CNN, "especially in Mexico, where as many as 103 deaths are thought to have been caused by the virus, the country's health minister said. More than 2,000 cases have been reported but not confirmed in the country. Federal officials confirmed 20 new U.S. cases on Monday. A federal official said they were at the same school in New York in which eight U.S. cases were confirmed earlier. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week." President Obama has acknowledged the potential danger, but argued that so far, the disease is "not a cause for alarm." It's true that the number of confirmed cases is still relatively small (to get an idea of the geographical range, you can track the spread of the disease on this Google map). And after an emergency meeting on Saturday, the Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) declined to raise their alert from Phase 3. They agreed that "that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," but held off any further action until more epidemiological data could be gathered.
That never stopped the folks on Twitter, whose ongoing response you can view here. Some of the tweets were essentially breaking news updates. Said @Alonis: "Nebraska is testing more than a dozen specimens for #SwineFlu right now & in Eastern Idaho four residents are being tested for swine flu." Meanwhile, ABC News correspondent David Wright (in his alter identity as @abcdavid) let it be known that the mainstream media considered the illness a big story, but not the big story: "Swine flu in Mexico and along the border - how scared should we be? Tonight on @nightline. (A hint: we're NOT the lead story...)."
Other tweets were more facetious. @TheWaltWhitman suggested a kind of homeopathic response: "In my day, having #swineflu meant you were hankering mightily for a rasher of bacon and a tub of hog lard in which to dip it." Added @bcbishop: "Seems like it's a good time to re-read The Stand."
The Twitter stream also pointed to some additional media responses. Over at Computer World, businesses were advised to grapple with the possibility of mass, flu-driven absenteeism. "It is important to have pandemic contingency plans that define what you would do if the workforce absenteeism rates exceeded 40% or you had to close your offices. As you develop and refresh those plans don't forget that mobile and wireless technology has a part to play," said Gartner analyst Nick Jones in the CW article.
There was also a somewhat defensive post from England's ThePigSite.com: "The pork industry finds itself with a serious public relations problem that is not of its own making and, in reality has nothing to do with pigs--SWINE FLU IS A PIG/PORK PROBLEM IN NAME ONLY! That is the emphatic word over the weekend from both the National Pork Board, the producer checkoff-funded group charged with promoting pork in the US and US pork abroad and conducting production and product research." Leave it to the "website for the global pig industry" to make this impassioned defense of our porcine friends. But they do make an important point: it is the human-to-human spread of the disease, which often mutates once it leaves the animal population, that is of the greatest concern. The pigs are innocent, snorting bystanders.
