Earlier today, the U.S. declared a public health emergency over the Swine Flu, after confirming 20 cases of the flu spreading to humans in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. More than 80 people have died in Mexico from the disease, which has potentially spread to other countries, including Canada and France. Although Federal officials are urging Americans not to panic about the disease, fear of contracting the potentially deadly flu is quickly spreading over Twitter, Google, and blogs across the web.
Swine Flu is the top trending topic on Twitter at the moment, with users rapidly tweeting about the latest news about the disease, including whether it has spread to other states, the Center for Disease Control’s announcement, etc.
Google Trends reports that “Swine Flu Ohio” is the 27th most popular search keyword currently, with searches for the “CDC” and “Swine Flu Symptoms” also making the top 100 keyword searches on Google.
Google Maps have also been created to chart the spread of the Swine Flu. Below is a Google Map created by a bio medical engineer, that charts suspect and confirmed cases of the Swine Flu in the U.S. and Mexico.
Technorati’s index, which graphs the number of times the search term occurs in blog posts across the web, shows that mentions of Swine Flu in blog posts has risen sharply from Friday to nearly 2800 blog post mentions today.
Wait, 80 people in the entire country? Why is this getting this amount of hype? People need to get a life.
you don’t get it, my friend. it’s time to start arming up. where do you live? i’m in l.a. i’ll take the zombies from the west, you take ‘em from the east, and we’ll meet in the middle. i suspect the boss will be somewhere in omaha; we’re gonna need extra firepower to take him down. and don’t forget to level up before you get there.
O.
M.
G.
Funniest thing I’ve read today. Level-up. Tee-hee.
@ Ryan Cammer
Nice one… that was funny…
Lmao. Good one.
hey no kdding meet you there when i see ya LOL
OMG, Ryan, I was ROFLMAO – Too funny
Mark Carras said…
Why is this getting this amount of hype?
I agree that there must be an element of alarmism here by both authorities and main stream media.
Leena Rao, instead of posting a Google map which may not be informative enough, perhaps someone from TC could make contact with Sandia National Lab to request info on a simulated map of how this virus is going to spread using their EpiSims software (Epidemiological Simulation Systems). May be Sarah Lacy can call the scientists at Sandia for an interview about the virus spread what-if-scenarios. This will give her a break from over-Twittering.
Its time to get on prevention-is-better-than-cure mode pal. But sometimes such alerts (on Twitter or Blogs or Google) can be panicky to the uninitiated.
And what does TC do?
Post a big story to multiply the effect !
My what a self-defeating post.
Yeah, doing justice and all that crap….
I m surprised no one yet mentioned about this being biological warfare.
yeah… i guess your right… get a life….
but seriously, if you knew anything about how fast dieseases can spred then I think you would be atleast a bit worried. I don’t think I should have to explain that 80 in a matter of hours can become 160 infected = 160 more dead, its only been two days since they have declared and NATIONAL alret about the diesease. and it has already affected people in our own country, it may not be as lethal as some people portray, but what I know is that people are dying from it… and honestly I think thats enough for anyone to worry…. so how about this… stop telling people to get a life and start worrying about your own.
Get ready – only the beginning!
um how many people have died of swine flu?????
I think its reaching close to 130 in Mexico, and in the states I think there has only been one recorded case
Ok, 80 people in Mexico, but still those are pretty low numbers for this level of hype.
It is the speed that it is developing which is scary.
are u kidding!! Im from Mexico, and believe me..it is really scary here!! no one in the streets… (schools, movies, games, churchs, parks, clubs are closed!)
There are 80 cases of dead, but hundreds of infected people!
What is swine?
Why people scare about it?
How it spread? Where it from?
Thanks
It’s mainly spread thru unpotected anal sex.
I wouldn’t write it off just yet. This is something like 80 deaths so far for a flu that’s still quickly spreading *in late april*, and who knows how many infections there are now.
Oh shit, 80?
That’s already past the yearly number of deaths by lightning! And looking to quickly overtake deaths by asphyxiation from tripping while having a spoonful of peanut butter in your mouth.
The difference is that flu can spread quickly and exponentially. While it’s not likely, 80 this month might mean 800 next month, 8000 the month after that, 80k the month after that. And that’s just deaths, not including many times that fallen ill.
I’ve set up an agregation of swine flu news. BNO, BBC, veractect, new york times and CDC.
You can find it at http://twitter.com/trackswine
i’m juts sitting here refreshing http://trancy.net/h1n1 every once in a while.
I suspect it’s only going to increase over the next while as the virus spreads. The question is how pronounced will the spike be.
according to my research, once the virus reaches a critical stage, the infected will start craving brains. then, airborne infections will be dwarfed by the number of biting infections.
You’ll know it’s bad when Madagascar closes it’s ports!
Don’t forget Drudge still has a lot of power to drive the news, and he is using it on this one. I think he’s a bit of hypochondriac, he pushed the Bird Flu story a lot as well.
I don’t mind that the story is getting out there on the ‘net. Consider the alternative, that people get sick because they didn’t know about it.
Exactly, getting the info out there is important but this seems to be nothing more than using people’s boredom and paranoia to hype what should be a small health story.
And how am I not surprised that Twitter found itself in this story?
Good Job TwitterCrunch
Considering the overhyped Bird Fly that turned out to be as much a Pandemic as Frosted Wheat I’m not reaching for the shotgun quite yet.
This outbreak is really alarming especially to me because I live in Northern California and there have already been signs of outbreaks in Southern California!
This outbreak is really alarming especially for me because I live in Northern California and there have already been signs of outbreaks in Southern California!
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Agreed. The use of twitter by the unthinking masses is indeed a pandemic of stupid.
Leena Rao: What does, ” … the disease, which has potentially spread to other countries … ” mean?
@Leena –
I believe you’ve misunderstood what Google Trends data implies. This is inaccurate:
“Google Trends reports that ‘Swine Flu Ohio’ is the 27th most popular search keyword currently, with searches for the ‘CDC’ and ‘Swine Flu Symptoms’ also making the top 100 keyword searches on Google.
Google Trends tracks keywords that are seeing unusually high search volume relative to their normal performance. But it doesn’t mean that ‘Swine Flu Ohio’ is the #27th most searched term on Google. You’ll see here its volume is still dwarfed by real top 100 keywords, like “lyrics”:
http://www.goog...ine+Flu+Ohio%22
As Google doesn’t give meaningful units for the Trends data the only way to provide context is through comparison.
One thing that is really striking is that many of the new media but also the mainstream media are very sensationalist when it comes to covering a story like this. If you look at the twitter outings of the media (flackr has a nice aggregation here: http://flackr.n.../2009/04/24/160 ) you’ll see that the minute there is just the fainest rumour of someone catching the flu and the all-caps ‘POTENTIAL SWINE FLU IN *insert city here*. MORE NEWS SOON’ messages start appearing.
This makes the rumour surrounding the swine flu travel even faster than the flu itself.
Problem is that nowadays things have to be short and fast; a big background story that is much less sensation, much more background, would help spread a better analysis of the news. I guess this is something that twitter-like news coverage still has to learn.
Twatterers should not be concerned about swine flu. They’re much more vulnerable to the bird flu. Symptoms include metal diarrhea, linguistic agida, frothing at the crotch, anal bleeding and in 99.7% of the cases, narcissism.
While bird flu can be spread via human-to-human contact, the consumption of large volumes of messages tainted by bird droppings (also known as “tweets”) is the most common transmission vector.
this is ridiculas. and how many people, in that time frame, have died from, well, ANYthing else?
It is not about the absolut number of dead people so far. I am sure an epidemic especialist can come up with better numbers than mine, but the real scary stuff is that this disease can spread in very large numbers, very fast.
Figure this: the disease goes out of control and infects, say, 23 millions in Mexico. Government has 1 million dosis to fight that. So, with the mortality rate now around 6%, you can easily expect well over one million deaths.
That’s why WHO and the CDC and every health agency around the world is really worried about this virus and why the have been warning the world about the avian flu. They can cope with a thousand cases and 80 deaths. But they can’t cope with a flood of cases.
Besides, I would like to tell you that it’s really scary down here, in Mexico City. Deserted streets belong to the realm of movies, but now is a reality I can see through my window.
80 American deaths are a big deal!!
10 million African deaths?
Annually?
No, I’m not saying anything racist. All I’m saying is that the rest of the world has been facing this for years.
It is also proof that the US healthcare system was good, then got screwed and now is on par with everywhere else in the world.
Now it is just 100 days since someone moved out of The House and we can all see the state he and his goons have left the healthcare system in, alongwith the end of the great American dream.
Hint: Bush
Your statistics just solved the unemployment problem. The coming deaths will fix the undefunded pension program.
Brushed up on my L4D this afternoon just in case.
Interesting how many people are blowing this off.
While the hype is not useful there are a couple of reasons the CDC is concerned. First, viral epidemics can grow exponentially. So 80 deaths this week can be 8000 next month. Second, people are infectious with flu BEFORE serious symptoms occur. So there may be a lot more infected people than we know about. Third, the strain of flu H1N1 involved has the tendency to recombine quickly. With a large pool of infected people the probability that a much more lethal mutant will evolve is significant. The precautions are to reduce gatherings of large numbers of people in areas of infection. People with respiratory infections should stay at home so reduce the chance that they might infect others, even if they don’t have the flu. Physicians and health care providers will have a higher index of suspicion for flu and treat possible cases as such (Tamiflu is effective for this strain) instead of waiting for absolute confirmation.
Is there cause for concern. Yes. A similar (though more lethal) strain caused the 1919 pandemic. Some locales lost 5% of their population. There were mass graves of victims in Boston and Philadelphia.
Is there cause for panic. No. And civilization will not end any more than it did in 1919. The probability of a serious pandemic is still very low. But the CDC’s job is not to wait until the odds of one are even 5% before issuing warnings. Declaring a public health emergency is more for the physicians, nurses and public health officials than for the general public.
For further reading see The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry.
So, you mean to say that there is no cause for panic? But what about the trends – they alarm everyone about the fear of the epidemic spreading…
Everyone buy stock in Purell!
Noticed a few up here in BC Canada but no one is getting that sick…oh well.
It’s interesting how such stuff manages to get front-page headlines. Since “swine flu” appears to be the most-searched-for phrase of the day, I decided I would do some traffic whoring on my own blog (A CHL Instructor’s View) by mentioning my own take on the hysteria. http://chl-tx.com/bookreviews/
The virus could just die out or we may not be laughing so hard in a couple of weeks, let’s wait and see.
Hi all, I found this site with lots of info on the swine flu outbreak:
http://www.swin...flu-info.co.nz/
thought it might be useful…
You may also want to read:
http://bit.ly/vaC5
Here’s the live trend for “swine flu” on Twitter:
http://twist.fl...flu&table=0
The administration in Hong Kong were criticised for not acting quickly enough when SARS hit and so you can’t blame governments for treating this seriously.
80 deaths in that time frame is a lot and worthy of concern. If this strain has a high virulence then things could get a lot worse. Forewarned is forearmed.
My latest web comic about the whole thing: http://bit.ly/t9R4D
Exactly, getting the info out there is important but this seems to be nothing more than using people’s boredom and paranoia to hype what should be a small health story
It is indeed time to panic! http://isittimetopanic.com/
Ignorance rides on a big bandwagon… all aboard!!
Check out a blog by author of *Dread* Philip Alcabes. He says swineflu is not a pandemic. WHO, CDC are doing sound public health and we should avoid a panic paradigm: http://www.philipalcabes.com
Those claiming that there is hype for nothing about the swineflu should realize that death of 80 people within few days can translate to millions deaths in a year. Plus this is a classic example of how the world has become a global house. You can read my take on this at http://www.kach...anya.com/?p=139
“Swine Flu Spreads Panic Over The Web”?
Gee, I’d have said “Social Networks Spread Swine Flu Information All Over Web.”
My great-grandparents were killed by the influenza pandemic in 1918, orphaning my grandmother and her siblings. Whole families were devastated.
The danger of this strain is that it appears to kill young, healthy people as efficiently as it kills the infirm or people with compromised immune systems. Oh, and it can be spread through the air. And you can transmit it before you know you’re infected. And Janet Napolitano won’t stop hunting for imaginary “right wing extremists” long enough to close the border with Mexico. And there’s no 100% effective vaccine or treatment.
But besides that, no reason to panic.
Let’s just hope that word about swine flu spreads faster than the flu itself.
As with everyting in life it is best to be prepared. Here is a link to the CDC for information on the Swine Flu. http://pfx.me/NR
Looks like the imaginary pandemic ended before it even began http://iamned.com/blog/ keep buying stocks. no more doom and gloom.
I’ve seen an influx merch added to the CafePress catalogue, including some designs on thongs (which could, perhaps, be modified to serve the purpose of a decorative facemask): http://blog.caf...hold-the-bacon/
So far, avian flu merch outnumbers the swine flu offerings. But it’s still early.
I don’t think a spike in the number of people searching for the term, or the topic being discussed actively in forums and Twitter necessarily constitutes panic spreading on the web. Granted, word about what is happening gets spread around much faster now than before. But hopefully what gets talked about isn’t so much about updates on what is happening than information on what we should do to protect ourselves and how we can play a part in containing the spread of the flu virus. Let’s not play down the seriousness of the issue, while at the same time not react with panic.
For the media machine this is a blessing. Finally something else, besides the economic crisis, to talk and write about, and it’s something they can hype and blow it up as high as they can, for the masses at large are sheep !
Some prospective: in any “normal” ( as in with no hysteria-swine-flu ) year, any normal year out there, in the US only, there are about 25k to 35k of deaths due to the flu. 25thousands flu-victims yearly. That is ~ 68 deaths a day for the entire year, from the FLU ! And the news agencies ? Not a single word.
Worldwide, that amount goes up to half a million deaths a year. That makes ~ 1300 deaths daily for the whole year, and all “flu deaths” Again, do the media report this ? Nope, not a mention.
Always ffrom the CDC, on average, in the USA, every year, during the flu season, ~ 20% of the population, “get” the flue, one way or the other. People, that’s about 60 million people in USof A get the flue every year, and 35thousands of them die.
In the meantime, if you believe US Today, in this same article, about Mexico, it is reported: “the confirmed death toll in the country is up to 20,”
20 NOT 148 !! Media outlets, are blowing this WAY out of proportion.
3000 kids die of malaria EVERY SINGLE DAY ! Where is the media !!! ???
Why, all of a sudden, this outbreak of news reporting about a bad flu season in Mexico !?? Was it getting too hard to keep writing about the economy crisis ?
Too many cases of employees kidnapping their managers ? Too many shootings ? It’s easier to pick out an “outside enemy” , faceless like a virus, and make up a nice story. WAKE UP !! Flue is a virus and it travels everywhere, usually following air travel, all this is NOTHING NEW. Half a million people die every year of the flu, worldwide. About 25 to 35 thousands death in the US alone, and the media find that out NOW !??
Never allow an opinion to come in the way of a fact….
Are we scared yet ? Well maybe. When sick, go to see a doctor right ? Nope, not if you are aware that the American Medical Association itself, reports that in the USofA, doctor mistakes cause ~ 590 deaths a DAY. And yet, we all still go to the doctor, correct ?
And now, all this global mass hysteria over the swine-flu ? Something else is up, out there.
Clearly there was a need of shifting the global focus of people into something else, and what else of an outbreak of something obscure, unstoppable, like a virus ?
This is a global-media-orgasm-hysteria.
Watch for the movie coming out soon. On DVD, since no-one will go to theaters for fear.
How dumb are we all ?
Actually, the 36,000 figure from the CDC is one of their “scare” figures. I’ve seen several articles that drill down in CDC figures and find that only 300-400 people die from flu each year in the US.
As for the other diseases, I think that’s ignored because of nationalism of the citizens and media.
“Something else is up, out there.”
Well, there is the current administration’s attempt to completely trash the 1st, 2nd (http://www.govt...pd?bill=h111-45), 4th, 9th, and 10th amendments to the COTUS… Hard to pull that off if enough people are paying attention.
(The prior administration was only trying to trash the 1st, 3rd, and 8th. Seems both parties seem to think that “Freedom of Speech” should actually be “Freedom to Agree with your Leadership”.)
Don’t forget, GW was behind trashing the 4th amendment too.
Your link doesn’t provide anything on what’s harmful about that bill or even whether the White House is behind it.
this is so crazy what’s going on here – totally irrational.
i did a blog post as an MD on taht topic
http://lukas.zi...s-on-swine-flu/
Has anyone been tracking the spread of swine flu on this website http://www.swin...u-tracker.com/? It seems every time I check it the swine flu spreads.
The U.S. is lying about the so called swin flu, for political reasons (as always, they need someone to blame) in order to save face. “50 people have contacted the swin flu and not one has dead in the U.S.?” In Mexico, 100 people have died? The U.S. has more or less about 35,000 cases of the flu deaths per year, way more than Mexico. Those people in Mexico have dead for a smart flu Bomb that kills only Mexicans and spares Americans? The people who are dying from the flu in the U.S., the Medical establishment for Embarrassment and blame, In order to save face and promote the lies will simply say “it was some other flu. Is this some type of intelligent test? “MAN ARE AMERECANS STUPID” do you think you’re kidding the world? You’re not. Mexico knows exactly what you doing; they have a long History of Americas stupidity and crap. I don’t care if it’s the lizard flu the American who died or dead
For the U.S. to close the border, which isn’t going to happen (why would the U.S.)? Which has a much higher rate of the Flu, 36,000 deaths per year about 100 per day; “every day” it would be economic suicide, for the U.S. Contrarily to what some people like Lou Dobs says (wacko) Mexico buys much more products from the U.S. Then U.S. Buys from Mexico, 2nd largest trading partner in the world, Canada is 1st and California’s largest customer; most Americans don’t even know that 10s of thousands of U.S. job In America are directly connected and rely on Export to Mexico
(most stupid American Politicians dont even know that)
So what ever effects Mexico is going to effect the U.S. economy, in fact the U.S. is now losing jobs becouse of Mexico and it may get allot worse for the U.S. Job market, if Americans knew all the facts they would kick themselfs, but you will find out soon, probably the hard way to match thair hard heads
we can put swine flu in this Perceptive
http://www.guar...ions/swine-flu/
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Are you looking for specific information about an alternative health treatment for an infectious condition? If so, this section of the website is for you.
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Read the news today….. 11 cases RECORDED in the US and AT LEAST 1 dead…. Sorry but if the USA can’t keep this virus at bay, then our scientist have some thinking to do…Already has spread down into GA, so referring to the government lying about the virus…. yeah good imagination, but I don’t think that they would make an international ordeal about it, I do believe that our government lies to us, but not about something like this, its not like this virus will stimulate the economy… if anything its sending people back into seclusion staying away from other people who might be infected, its natural to be paranoid, so next time you accuse the government of lying… think how they might benefit from it… if they do indeed benefit from it in some way…. then it is still a HUGE possibility, and I don’t personally think the antagonizing the country is on the top of the US’s to-do-list
(this post is in response to user ** G.A. ** )
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