Comments on: When pig flu flew http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2010/06/15/when-pig-flu-flew/ Your source for Seattle health news and information Wed, 16 May 2012 23:56:45 +0200 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Tom Paulson http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2010/06/15/when-pig-flu-flew/comment-page-1/#comment-1033 Tom Paulson Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:42:48 +0000 http://localhealthguideonline.com/?p=13595#comment-1033 Thanks Mike. I share your concern that given this episode the public may not respond appropriately to a serious (and full-fledged) pandemic. Maybe we will need a new word, like megapandemic, to get the point across and distinguish it from WHO's watered-down definition. Tom Thanks Mike. I share your concern that given this episode the public may not respond appropriately to a serious (and full-fledged) pandemic. Maybe we will need a new word, like megapandemic, to get the point across and distinguish it from WHO’s watered-down definition.
Tom

]]> By: Mike Perry http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2010/06/15/when-pig-flu-flew/comment-page-1/#comment-1032 Mike Perry Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:32:58 +0000 http://localhealthguideonline.com/?p=13595#comment-1032 I agree. The failure of WHO and others doesn't lie in their initial response. In its early stages, H1N1 did seem scary. Their failure came when it became obvious, even to a layman like me, that the scare was overblown. At that point, they continued to act as if it wasn't. They had too much invested in their initial rhetoric. We may never know how much their motivation was ego ("I save the world"), grant-seeking (grants fund careers), or efforts to please the drug industry, given the revolving door between industry and NGOs. But what we do know is that the next time there's a potentially scary virus, the public is likely to be more skeptical because of this. I agree. The failure of WHO and others doesn’t lie in their initial response. In its early stages, H1N1 did seem scary. Their failure came when it became obvious, even to a layman like me, that the scare was overblown. At that point, they continued to act as if it wasn’t. They had too much invested in their initial rhetoric. We may never know how much their motivation was ego (“I save the world”), grant-seeking (grants fund careers), or efforts to please the drug industry, given the revolving door between industry and NGOs.

But what we do know is that the next time there’s a potentially scary virus, the public is likely to be more skeptical because of this.

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