Persuasive Essay

                                                                                              Lisa Baker-Sampson
                                                                                         ENG 111
                                                                                               5/25/09
                  As the Swine Flu grows, so does the controversy in medical field

    Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza, according to the CDC. It does not normally infect humans, but cases have occurred among people especially those who have had direct exposure to pigs. There have also been cases in the past of one person spreading swine flu to other people the CDC said.
      Person-to-person transmission is believed to occur in a manner similar to the spread of the influenza virus through infected people coughing and sneezing. People may contract swine flu by touching something with viruses on it and then touching their nose or mouth.
    One of the first things that accompany news of dangerous flu viruses is an economic evaluation of the effects of a pandemic. The last pandemic was known as the Hong Kong flu epidemic of 1968 and 1969. The deaths from the flu were estimated to be between 750,000 and one million people, including nearly 34,000 in the United States.
    Since that pandemic more than 40 years ago, there have been no major events involving the global spread lethal flu infections. There have been cases of dangerous avian flu outbreaks in Asia for a decade which has caused the deaths of a small number of people. Since these flu infections have not spread globally warnings and concerns about pandemics have not been much seen in the media.
    The media has been very involved in transmitting the latest information from all the public health organizations and specialists in disease tracking. A World Health Organization spokesman, Thomas Abraham, said “We are very, very concerned. We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human…It’s all hands on deck at the moment.”
    One controversy we have with the swine flu is Twitter, a micro-blogging site where users post 140-character messages, has become a hotbed of unnecessary hype and misinformation about the outbreak, which is thought to have claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico.  A spokesman for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, however, said that the on-line buzz about swine flu is a good sign. It means people are talking about the issue, and that’s the first step toward learning how to responsibly protect yourself.
    The odds that tens of thousands of people will die from the swine flu are low.  The fact that the new disease seems not to be terribly virulent outside of Mexico is another factor that supports the opinion that this will not be a major epidemic. However, the world can still look forward to trillions of dollars in financial losses and an economic depression.
    It would not be a good idea to take the $3 trillion in upcoming losses from the new “pandemic” to the bank.