Tuesday, October 20, 2009

H1N1 prevention measures: good work Korea

According to the Korea Times (my bolding) "South Korea's health authorities Tuesday reported two more deaths from the H1N1 virus infection, bringing the nation's flu death toll to 20."

I can accept that any death is one too many, but compare the death toll from Korea, population 50 million+, to that of Canada, population 32 million (my bolding):
FluWatch, will be published every Friday at 4 p.m. to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of the H1N1 flu virus in Canada.
Bi-weekly and cumulative number of deaths due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, by province/territory, Canada, as of 15 October, 2009, 11h00 EDT
...Total 80


Ontario alone has had 25 deaths.

I understand that the flu appears to have started in Mexico (that's still the consensus, right?) and Canada shares a continent and a free trade agreement with Mexico so people and products are more likely to cross into Canada, but this might be support for the measures Korea has taken.

I didn't care for Korea's prevention measures and didn't like having a thermometer stuck in my ear when I got to work, but it may have saved lives.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whether it's 20 or 80, it's clearly not cause for alarm.

To put things in perspective:

2000 to 8000 die from seasonal flu per year in Canada

2000 die from tuberculosis per year in South Korea (which gives it the highest per capita death rate amongst OECD countries)

I bet these numbers will be lower this year, one of the few benefits of the mass hysteria.

Anonymous said...

How can it be a 'mass hysteria' if it has saved a lot of lives?

Anonymous said...

You still suppose that the virus is particularly virulent, when it clearly is not.