Anatomy of a flu panic

July 28, 2009 - 2:50 PM by Nicky · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life, health

swine flu in the UK Israel had its first death from swine flu yesterday. It hit the front pages of the online newspapers yesterday in a fairly modest way, and today has already been pushed off the all-important page by stories about foiled terror plots, the chances of a summer war with Lebanon, talks with the Palestinians and the ever-looming threat of Iran.

Compare it to Britain. For the last few weeks the country has been in the throes of swine flu panic, with scare stories predicting 65,000 deaths by Christmas, figures showing 100,000 new cases in one week alone, threats of mass school closures across the country, warnings of a break down in vital services, and pictures of commuters donning face masks on the underground.

Women were advised not to get pregnant during the crisis – then told it was ok, but now the government is threatening to shut down programming on the BBC and replace it with educational programs if schools have to close.

With a trip to various epidemic hot spots in the UK planned for August, and not much sign of swine flu here, I took the opportunity of asking my children’s doctor what she thought. (I had plenty of chances, my children have been sick with assorted bugs every week for the last three).

On the first visit she told me that she’d just seen two patients that she was sure had swine flu from the village next to mine. On the last she told me she thought half the village already had it, and the same was true in Petah Tikva, where she also has a clinic.

So what’s the difference? “We don’t check to see if it’s swine flu unless the person is hospitalized,” she told me. “We won’t ever know the real figures, but maybe it’s better that way, because no-one’s in a panic.”

Whatever the reason, swine flu remains low on the list of news items this summer in Israel. It may not be passing us by, but it definitely isn’t generating many headlines.

Perhaps the panic is still to come as more deaths follow. Perhaps it’s just too hot to think about right now. Perhaps we’re all too busy entertaining the kids during the long holidays. Perhaps Israelis don’t worry about their health so much, or perhaps – most likely of all – we’ve just got other more pressing things to worry about. There’s nothing like an existential threat to put things in perspective.

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