Don't Be Afraid - Fact Are Facts

You don't have the flu, swine (H1N1) or otherwise. So what does it matter how many people died. You didn't die. All that matters is that you are safe and without infection. Maybe you're reassured by not knowing. Many people don't ever really want to know and they panic when they get those false emails telling them that the "sky is falling!" Today we heard from a relative by email something that happened to someone else that we should now be cautious. The "facts" in the email weren't true and the email had been circulating since last year. The purpose was to protect us by making us cautious. All such emails are false. We've received only one in five years that was actually true.

As we approach the weekend and our weekly flu death numbers the local jurisdictions (DC, Maryland and Virginia) have released their "official" "reset" stats and ignored our emailed questions concerning the numbers to date! While the District of Columbia has a huge brand new splash page proclaiming only one (1) confirmed H1N1 cases* and zero (0) deaths they offer this caveat: "As of September 1, the Department of Health only tests for H1N1 in hospitalized flu cases. Counts are the number of confirmed cases since September 1, 2009."

What's missing is the date of the notice so we'd know that they're counting from the first of September til when? The second of September? You'll notice the words "confirmed cases." What do we care whether or not the case is confirmed as H1N1 or not? How many individuals in the District of Columbia have died as a result of the flu?

Maryland's Department of Health is more imaginative but to find the information you'll have to look "in the corner in the booth in the back in the dark." Look at the very bottom on the right hand side. You'll see a much smaller chart "below the fold": "Total Maryland 2009 H1N1 Flu Hospitalizations and Deaths, Posted 09/01/09 @ 1:42 p.m., Reported since June 1, 2009. Hospitalized Cases 166, Deaths 7."

Kudos to Maryland for not "resetting" their numbers to zero as per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "To allow jurisdictions to implement the new case definition, counts were reset to zero on August 30, 2009. From August 30-September 12, 2009 4,569 hospitalizations and 364 deaths associated with influenza virus infection, or based on syndromic surveillance for influenza and pneumonia, were reported to CDC."

Virginia's Department of Health has the most accurate, maybe, method taking their clue from the CDC very difficult to understand graphic map. The PDF shows: "Percent of Emergency Department and Urgent Care Visits with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) by Health District in Virginia, 2009 - Data for week ending September 12, 2009." Which again isn't the information we really want to know. Are we then suppose to move, live, work in the areas where their is no activity or like the scary emails we get - "be afraid, be very afraid?" Is the sky failing?

We'd really like to know who made the decision or approved the decision to "reset" to zero the number of deaths due to the flu for the District of Columbia, who decided to hide the count on the Maryland page, or who decided that a graphic, non-interactive map was the most efficient way to demonstrate ER flu visits? We REALLLLLY would like to know in case that individual or those individuals ever decided to seek higher professional aspirations. We want names!

Think its okay. Let's put it this way: John Allen Muhammad, Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson have not killed anyone -if we reset their murders to zero. It's exactly the same. It's disrespect for the lives of the dead. They aren't important. All that is important is what we say!

We will not reset our numbers to zero! Information is power. If you need to bury your head in the sand go right ahead. We're going to keep our heads to the sky.