5 minutes with a newspaper, TV, or radio will leave many people afraid of catching the infamous H1N1 virus, the “swine flu.” One investigative reporter looked into how much of an issue it actually is.
Under the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), each state was tracking their confirmed cases of swine flu. Using clinical judgment, health care professionals would take the most likely cases to be swine flu and send them for testing. This testing would be accurately done in a laboratory, rather than the rapid testing sometimes used.
The reporter contacted each state individually, all 50, requesting the data: “How many were tested”, and “How many were confirmed?” The results were shocking! In her own words:
“Of those presumed likely swine flu cases out of approximately every hundred of what was tested, only a small fraction were actually swine flu. In every instance, perhaps the biggest number of cases that were swine flu was something like 30%. The smallest number was something like 2% or 3%.
Maybe there’s one state where it was just 1%.
The point is, of the vast majority of the presumed swine flu cases recognized by trained physicians, the vast majority were not flu at all. They weren’t swine flu or regular flu; they were some other sort of upper respiratory infection.”
So should you worry about swine flu? That’s up to you, but worrying about eating right, getting good sleep, and spending the holidays with those you love will likely yield more health benefits.
Scott Brady, D.C.
[This information comes from an interview between Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative reporter, and Dr. Joseph Mercola]