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For what it's worth:

Using planet-wide statistics to point out what is important to people in the US isn't really effective.
Most people here don't really link deaths in other countries to their own health; AIDS would be taken more seriously if they did. I think the rate of worldwide AIDS-related deaths is around 2 million/year. Acute malaria sickens 500 million people (half a billion!) worldwide yearly, and causes/contributes to about 3 million deaths/year.
Just those two diseases alone kill yearly about 6 million out of the 6.7 billion (or 6,700 million) people living on this planet, severely sickening many, many more...

The part about Rumsfeld is a separate issue; that he pumped up the "bird flu" threat has been around the 'net for a while. Don't get me wrong- I despise Rumsfeld. He's a pathological liar, was incompetent in matters of national security -which includes emerging diseases- and a war criminal. But he did not create "bird flu" or manufacture a threat that did not exist. Tamiflu does not cure flu, by the way; it just reduces the symptoms and duration of illness if taken early on.

Bird/swine flu viruses occasionally pass from animal to human. That's not the major issue; it happens fairly often. It's the mutation that allows the virus to be transmitted from human to human that makes that virus a new and very real threat. Influenza viruses are constantly changing; it's why we have to come up with new flu vaccines every year- new forms are always developing.

If you look at the statistics over many years,"regular" flu and pneumonia combined are the 6th-leading cause of death in the U.S.- after heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injury and COPD. Last year (2008- before the latest H1N1), at its peak, it was 9% of all deaths.(details below)

Take the same precautions you normally would in cold/flu season- wash hands, sneeze into sleeves, stay home and hydrated if you do get sick- statistically you're at greater risk of death from the seasonal flu- but don't write either flu off as hogwash. If you are in a particular risk group, or have a critical job (like health care worker), consider getting vaccinated- but at the very least, take care of yourself!

Sorry about the soapbox here, but lots of people seem to be heading for the extremes- acting as if this is not a real problem, or boarding themselves up in their homes!

for more information:
http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.flu.gov/

Hope this helps!


For the geekier crowd, below are the stats for weekly percentage of deaths from pneumonia/flu- that red line on the graph. It peaked last year at 9.1% of total deaths in March '08.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/weeklyarchives2007-2008/07-08summary.htm

During the 2007--08 influenza season, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) exceeded the epidemic threshold†† for 8 consecutive weeks in the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System during the weeks ending January 12--May 17, 2008 (weeks 9--16). The percentage of P&I deaths peaked at 9.1% during the week ending March 15, 2008 (week 11). During the previous three influenza seasons, the peak percentage of P&I deaths has ranged from 7.7% to 8.9% and the total number of weeks the P&I ratio exceeded the epidemic threshold has ranged from one to 11. The P&I baseline and epidemic threshold values are projected for each season at the onset of that season and are based on data from the previous five years. The robust regression model used to calculate the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System baseline and epidemic threshold values was recently modified. This new methodology better takes into account shifts in the long term trends of the 122 Cities data, and will be used in the upcoming 2008-09 influenza season to project the baseline and epidemic threshold values.

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