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The United States of Hysteria
Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo
When President Obama declared the swine-flu outbreak a national emergency, he tapped into America’s time-honored tendency to freak out.
Get a grippe. Well, hopefully, you won’t. But if you do, most likely you have nothing to worry about. Despite the president’s declaration of H1N1 as a national emergency this week, despite the long lines of people waiting to be vaccinated, despite the startling shortage in vaccinations, which is almost as startling as the speed at which they’re being made—in spite of all this climate of crisis, now certified by presidential decree, swine flu is not the Spanish flu that killed tens of millions of people in 1918.
Rather, the media has distorted the reporting of it. The government has bungled its handling of it. We are all wildly overreacting to it. Yet given the nature of our democracy, the response to the Great H1N1 Scare of 2009 is exactly what it should have been: hysterical.
Routine panics are the hallmark of an open society. The more democratic and open we are—historically speaking—the more vulnerable we are going to feel.
Dictatorships are a hysteria from above; democracy is a hysteria from below. Tyrants see and fear plots all over, so they keep their populations in the dark about everything, including threats to general health. Yet the more secretive they make society, the more their paranoia grows. In 2003, China’s communist government forbade its press and even its people to utter a word about SARS, even as the lethal respiratory illness was traveling from China to the rest of the world. Scientists say that if the Chinese had alerted them to the disease earlier, its spread could have been stopped.
Routine panics, on the other hand, are the hallmark of an open society. The more democratic and open we are—historically speaking—the more vulnerable we are going to feel.
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• Why You Love Being Scared of Swine Flu That might explain our utterly strange addiction to disaster movies that present the spectacle of American civilization flooded, burned, bombed, vaporized, quaked and lava-scorched out of existence. No society in the history of humankind has ever been diverted by portrayals of its violent extinction. But our openness as a society is just as unprecedented. So perhaps these movies are like cathartic allegories for openness catastrophically transformed into vulnerability. They calm our inexplicable democratic anxiety by explaining just what the root of that anxiety is.
In a society as blessedly open as ours is to “strangers” and “outsiders,” the specter of a virus threatening our health and the health of our families is especially powerful. So it's hardly a surprise that over the past decade or so, we have embraced a whole new image of the virus. Rather than being an invisible infiltrator spreading sickness and death, it is now a bouncy little entrepreneur whose visitation will make you rich—a good, American virus. Ever since Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2000 book The Tipping Point, made “going viral” synonymous with profitable popularity, we have, in our sunny American fashion, turned the literal cause of disease into a pretty concept signifying happiness and wealth.
No wonder that when the virus becomes the real thing once again, our sunny state of denial is shattered and we revert to the elemental democratic emotion of hysteria.
You can blame a foundering media for pumping up the perils of H1N1, and that’s just what they’ve been doing, but they were also locked into the American idiom of reflexive democratic alarm. There was no other way they could report on swine flu but to suppress facts that mitigated or even contradicted presentation of the disease as rapid, agonizing, and fatal. They were as scared as the rest of us.
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teodora
"There was no other way they could report on swine flu but to suppress facts that mitigated or even contradicted presentation of the disease as rapid, agonizing, and fatal. They were as scared as the rest of us."
Suppressing vital information in order to induce panic and hysteria doesn't mean they're scared, it means they're evil. How else would you call outright lying, witholding information and disregarding facts when reporting something as serious as disease?
xlntcat
There is no evidence, absolutely none, that even so much as a rumor regarding swine flu has been suppressed. In fact, rumors, jumping to baseless conclusions, and making irrelevant comparisons have ran rampant.
aperturemad
Did Gladwell beat you out of a book deal? Geez, give it a rest.
eurydice9276
Two pages of gobbledygook to say "this is how things are, so live with it." And if you think we're alone in our taste for contemplating disaster, you might like to take a stroll through literary history, maybe starting with Homer.
allonfla
The hysteria started long before he declared it a National Emergency. I have to say though that in this country it is often better to be overly cautious than to do nothing or understate the situation. If there was a major outbreak and more people died, this country would sure have blamed the government for not doing enough.
bgeasyas123
Not saying I disagree with what you're saying, but then why isn't there a national emergency declared every fall right before flu season.....because it's the FLU. If it was truly a deadly disease worthy of an emergency it worth it would not be a strain of the flu.
xlntcat
There isn't a national emergency declared every fall because we have years of experience in determining how to deal with the seasonal flu. Whereas it does mutate and we do have seasons that are more lethal than others, we have not fear of hospitals becoming overwhelmed or needing to transport patients to other localities, etc. With a new virus, there is the threat that as the virus spreads it can become more severe and more lethal, we are dealing with the unknown and need to be prepared. When the president declares a national emergency following a hurricane, fire and flood, we all understand that he is simply freeing up federal resources to deal with the situation. I feel sure had he known the media was so uninformed that they would misinterpret, intentionally or through ignorance,National Emergency to mean something other than what it has always meant, he would have spoken slowly in short sentences and with a detailed explanation. Oh that right, he did give a detailed explanation. I guess he messed up with the full sentences.
pclayton
Please, get off that "better to err on the side of caution" bandwagon. You can march right in there and get vaccinated if you think that's why you won't get the flu but some of us are hip.
pclayton
I can't get over how easily Americans can be bamboozled by the pharmaceutical companies, who are obviously in bed with the government. They must sell their vaccine right now or they will lose their anticipated profit; this means they must convince us all that we must be vaccinated and the sooner the better (for them to profit, my dears). The media plays right along, especially on slow news days. Plus, if the flu does not blow into the 'epidemic' they would like to see and they have convinced all of us fools to buy into getting this vaccine, then they will claim it is because of their product that we have been spared. Who can prove otherwise if everyone is vaccinated? The swine flu, like any other flu, is dangerous to persons who are already afflicted with other chronic conditions that weaken their immune system, as well as the elderly, those with respiratory diseases, and the very young. The rest of us are at no greater risk of contracting or dying from this strain than any other. The more scared everyone becomes the more vaccine they sell. This is a ploy and I will not fall for it. It doesn't take much to scare Americans and it doesn't take much for a profit-monger to see the dollar signs in keeping us scared.
nb-moe
It has been proven that the vaccine policy makers have many shares in all the drug compainies that make the vaccine.
What else can be said.....they all stand to make millions from to fear.
I don't know how they sleep at night!
drjonathan
Right On, pclayton!! The only issue I would take with your comments is that you say the rest of us 'are at no greater risk of contracting or dying from this strain than any other.' I would say that so far deaths AND hospitalizations are WELL BELOW average morbidity and mortality for typical flu strains.
Isn't it great how the medical community has figured out how to take an illness 36 times LESS dangerous than its more-typical counterpart and turn it into a marketing coup, creating millions of additional ER visits, regular doctor visits, not to mention sales from the nearly useless vaccine itself? Check the other related topics even on this blog-- people are eating this stuff up! I wrote earlier about the overreaction of the public and how the medical community was fear mongering for profit... and I was branded as a misinformed individual who was gambling with his life. What rot!! This is the medical industry tring to gouge even more from us during one of the most financially devastated times in our history... Thank you for saying so!!
pclayton
Thank you for seeing it like it is. What's wrong with everyone...we have become such a bunch of scardy cats!
xlntcat
They can't sell their vaccine right now. The eggs aren't cooperating so they don't have it to sell. It doesn't matter how convinced anyone is regarding sooner as the demand if far greater than the supply. But, I am sure you enjoy your paranoia and conspiracy theories. By the way, the flu is already at an epidemic level. You don't keep up, do you.
pclayton
What? I think your definition of epidemic is different from that of Webster. And you can call it paranoia as you get your body loaded up with a virus that you may very well have no problem with.
citivas
Ironically, for an article whose theme is the lack of facts, this one is factually inaccurate. Contrary to the claim here, the CDC reported a couple weeks ago that roughly HALF of the over 1,000 deaths in the United States so far were of people who were otherwise healthy and did not have any of the typical pre-existing conditions associated with influenza fatality. That's the main reason this flu is such a concern. True the seasonal flu kills far more than 1,000 people each year in this country, but almost all of them have health issues or pre-existing conditions. The fact that half of those dying of H1N1 are otherwise healthy makes its potential far worse. And the CDC has also estimated that over 60 million people in the U.S. may get the H1N1 ful, despite the current immunization efforts. Add those two facts together and its reasonable for someone to want to take appropriate preventative measures, including immunization.
nb-moe
Your facts are scewed......DON"T BELIEVE THE CDC.....they are purposely mis-informing you. They haven't even put forth any eveidence, WHAT-SO-EVER, that theses 1000 people actually died of the swine flu!
%u2022The Chairman of the CDC's advisory committee owned 600 shares of stock in Merck, a pharmaceutical company with an active vaccine division.
According to the CBS News study, when you come down with chills, fever, cough, runny nose, malaise and all those other "flu-like" symptoms, the illness is likely caused by influenza at most 17 percent of the time and as little as 3 percent! The other 83 to 97 percent of the time it's caused by other viruses or bacteria.
I have little to no faith of the facts presented by the CDC.......scary, isn't it!
So....it's rather simple.....they scare you.....you take the vaccine....they CDC board members get more in theier dividends.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Obama's health advisor was in the drug companies pocket too.
citivas
Yeah, yeah. And we're hiding aliends in Area 51 and LBJ conspired with the Mob and the Commies to have a second shooter kill JFK, etc.
nb-moe
You're attempt to discredit my facts is meager....at best.
citivas
You're funny. Do you believe yourself or are you just having fun? The former would be a little scary...
I didn't dispute your "facts" because they are totally irrelevant. I have no idea if the Chairman of the CDC still owns 600 shares of Merck (I notice you weren't clear about whether he currently owns them) and your stat on how often symptoms actually turn out to be the flu seem totally plausible whether true or not -all sicknesses would have similar stats, so what's your point? But neither of these things, whether "facts" or not, have anything to do with discrediting the CDC or the information it releases. So I guess I could say the same to you - you didn't bother discrediting my facts. Seriously, my 4-year-old has a better grasp on logic and science than that. I hope you're just kidding for your sake...
drjonathan
nb-moe... another comment on the MONEY! Thanks! Oh, and by the way, to those attempting to discredit and berate you: the burden of proof for the safety, efficacy and VALUE of vaccines should be on the institutions dispensing them...NOT on the casual citizen who notices that not only are the benefits of the vaccine questionable, but that the 'public' institutions that urge their consumption have worrisome financial ties to the vaccine manufacturers. You go, moe. Don't let the arrogance of the uninformed stop you from saying what you know to be true to the best of your knowledge.
pclayton
Exactly. Just like those direct to the patient commercials where the side effects of virtually every drug they advertize are the same, whether it's Viagra or Cybalta. Smarten up, America, or we deserve to be run into the ground by the medicine men.
citivas
Wow the nuts jobs are out in force today on this topic. It seems to attrack them.
I would personally be interesting in reading interesting arguments backed by science and facts about the downsides of the H1N1 virus but that's not what's getting posted here. Just a lot of bizarre conspiracy theories and pseudo science.
PUPITO
Have you noticed that one of the side effects for Cymbalta, Ambien is " may cause drowsiness" ? I thought that was supposed to be the MAIN effect. shit like that just kills me. Anyways, you're a funny guy. But in some ways I agree with you. it's all about the BENJIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bgeasyas123
that is just one fact pertaining to pre-existing conditions, but what about the number of people who died due to complications that arose from the flu, like pneumonia. You are pretty much just as inaccurate.
nb-moe
To much a pardym shift for you I see.
Why do I even bother
eurydice9276
Well, people might be more willing to listen if you gave actual facts to disprove the CDC figures. Also, if you knew how to spell paradigm.
aackc1
This is Obama's Bush homeland security scare... Is this level Orange?
ThinkAgain
People lining up for a flu shot qualifies as mass hysteria?! His only other example of our hysteria is the fact that we like mass destruction movies? What a farce!
The press reacted more 'frantically' to the balloon boy and the cop/professor story than they did to this.
xlntcat
Ditto!
sophia5
Notice all the pharmaceutical advertisements during the local and national 24/7 cable "News" tied in with the "Breaking News National Emergency" ?
Not to mention the talk show segments
sponsored by . . . this or that pharmaceutical company,
and the not so subtle product placement
during some of those "chatting" with the "Expert" segments ?
It must be . . . a coincidence ?
nb-moe
LMFAO!!!! Nice catch, see my response citivas above.
published in the journal Eurosurveillance.......
Even if the vaccine was safe, by the time yopu get it it'll be too late.
The researchers found that at this point in time any vaccinations that are given in the United States will likely have little effect on the number of infections. The researchers state:
"The model predicts that there will be a significant wave in autumn, with 63% of the population being infected, and that this wave will peak so early that the planned CDC vaccination campaign will likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus."
In other words, infections are predicted to peak in late October (now) and by the end of the year it's estimated that 63 percent of the U.S. population will have been infected with H1N1 swine flu.
What does this mean? By the end of the year the majority of the U.S. population will have likely acquired natural immunity.
And then, the drug campanies will claim your own natural immunity as a victory resulting from the vaccines......WTF!!
And finally, the are ZERO reported cases of Autism in countries that do not vaccinate.
But hey.....it's a free country......it's up to you.
xlntcat
It is entirely untrue that there are zero cases of autism reported in countries that do not vaccinate. It is your choice to make whatever decision you are comfortable in making regarding taking the H1N1 vaccine if it become available to you. However, unless you have a medical degree or license, you are not qualified to practice medicine or to give medical advice.
MetryJen
I would just like to point out that it's statistically unlikely that there are really zero cases of autism anywhere, and that if there aren't any reported it's more likely that they just.... weren't reported. Probably because they were never diagnosed - it takes a sophisticated medical infrastructure to get to the point where people are worrying about things like mental illness/defects. There are huge chunks of the world were gangrene is more common than vaccinations, so yeah, they probably aren't worrying too much about autism.
nb-moe
In Bowling for Colombine, Michale Moore said that America just loves fear......
why is this even news! Fear makes money! Good time to get shares in Merck!
Maezeppa
Maybe YOU are hysterical, Mr. Siegel - the rest of us are getting on with it. You seem a little out of touch, but there again, most media and reporting is one big feedback loop.
eurydice9276
LOL! That's the danger of being continuously "plugged in" - you're so afraid to miss any little detail that you end up missing the whole big picture.
drjonathan
Thank you Mr. Siegel! Finally an article on the Beast that addresses this issue without being a mouthpiece for vaccine maufacturers. I LOVED your point about why the spread of the 1918 flu epidemic was so severe. Ever consider writing one about how tough it is to prove the effectiveness of this particular vaccine, and yet how much money will by made from the medical industry (ER vistis, doc visits, vaccine sales)?
PUPITO
Chills, feverish, vomiting, nausea! OMG I think I have....................................................................... ........................................................................a hangover!
oldpunk
Captain Trips................The Walking Dude is coming.
meisme
We were scared, but our government told us not to panic, wear the mask everywhere you go in public, even when you see your own doctor, when you have high body temperature do not venture out with people, stay indoor, if you have the flue symptoms, light fever, body pains, watery eyes and headache all in one, go to a doctor for check up, do not forget your mask, other than that will be treated as normal flu, especially do not travel abroad without taking your vaccine. YES, there were death related to this swine flu, 14 cases early this year (our population only around 370,000). The government took immediate actions to close the school for 2 weeks, and once open again, they placed until now 4 medical nurses at the entrance to check the body temperature of each student, anyone with higher body temperature will be sent home to rest until the temp normal. We were scared but not up to paranoia and hysterical. Any medical advertisement was forbidden to avoid misleading information and further damage to the situation. The government tries its best endlessly to get the best medical researches on this swine flu and they successfully put them under controlled. Their on going advises are (1) wash your hands before touching food (2) do not stay too close to someone without wearing your mask (3) do not touch your eyes and nose without washing your hands (4) do not go out and mingle with people if your body temp is slightly high (5) keep your place clean and personal hygience (6) clean yourself once you arrive home before you mingle with your family
Thank you.
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