Thanks to a cocktail of fear, Internet technology and actual complexity, the misinformation spread this year faster than the actual virus. The end of the year (and hopefully the phase of the virus) seems like a good time for a wrap-up of rumors and all-out frauds about H1N1. Here’s a few that seem to still be in circulation:
OK, first of all, my apologies for the recent silence. I’ve been deep in the weeds on a story that is now finished--and will come out in January. It was an epic ride, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and am glad is over. But more on that later.
Now seems like a good time to revisit the slow-motion disaster of the year. To be sure, we still don’t know how the swine flu story ends. But we finally know the headline. Beyond all the noise about H1N1, the CDC, pigs and Mexico, this will go down as a…
So far, the biggest problem with the swine flu vaccine seems to be that it is hard to find. This may not be a bad thing, at least not from a public-health perspective. If the vaccine were easy to find, fewer people would want it. It’s perverse but true. Long lines can be good for your health.
When humans are faced with a shortage of a commodity, they tend to want more. In a bar, the research shows, men and women tend to view each…
At the moment, the bigger problem with the vaccine is that nobody knows when or where they can get it. The first doses just came out this week, and the feds are leaving it up to the states and locals to distribute them.…
I did a swine flu interview the other day on Public Radio International’s To the Point. Most valuable moment: Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association does a really nice job of explaining how the flu virus works--and why it can change so dramatically (or, as he puts it, “makes a mistake") as it reproduces. (He starts talking around minute 24, for those of you in the mood for a short biology lesson.)
The single biggest challenge (so far) about swine flu is that the two questions your brain most badly wants answered are technically unanswerable: 1. What are my chances of getting it? 2. What are my chances of dying?
Our brains are wired to ask those questions. They are damn good questions. But no one really knows the answer (more on why that is coming soon). In the meantime, the trick is to make an educated guess. And that we can do pretty easily.
A bunch of people have emailed me lately to ask for help with…
A while back, the Obama administration asked people to submit video PSAs about Swine Flu. The finalists have been chosen. Now it’s up to the rest of us to pick the winner. You can vote one time for (or against) each video every day--until Sept. 16. The winner gets $2,500 and boundless fame. My own personal favorite is the one pictured here.
