Saturday, December 13, 2003

Priorities...

Last year, people were freaked out about driving through Canada because of SARS. This year, the Centers for Disease Control are considering quarantine as a way to deal with SARS should it re-emerge next spring. Meanwhile, they are depending on pharmaceutical corporations, with two eyes on their bottom line, to protect the population against influenza.

Number of worldwide cases of SARS last year: 813
Number of confirmed cases of SARS in the US: 8
Number of SARS-related deaths in the US: 0
Number of people hospitalized with the flu last year in the US alone: 114,000
Number of flu-related deaths in the US last year: 36,000
(All numbers from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control)

44 times as many people died of the flu as even came down with SARS, and that's the disease we're worried about?

No comments: