Swine flu? Big deal. We’re missing the point
Before we start burning the homes of everyone who’s child comes home from school coughing, or unholstering the pitchforks and torches to chase people who have colds, we need to look at a couple of things.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the average annual deaths from influenza is 36,171, extrapolated from figures dating back decades. And the number of people who come down with it is exponentially higher. Also, some quarters believe that the deaths of elderly are severely under counted because when old people die, too often no one asks why. So the figure could be high as 50,000. But that’s small change compared to the worst disease of all.
I’ve watched this for weeks and I have yet to hear anyone say plug the hole in the dam instead of trying to bail water out of the rising river. I have yet to see one segment observing or attacking the swine flu “pandemic” (and those quotes are for sarcasm) mentioning that the petri dish for the disease was the poverty. In this case, Mexico — where in the slums, people seek medical help from the local faith healer, and at best use bootlegged drugs and antibiotics and see a doctor as a last resort because they can’t afford real medical care.
Over the decades, the poverty we ignore has given us HIV disease, a resurgence of polio and measles, tuberculosis and Al Qaeda; and quiet as it’s kept, some dark operatives in the off-the-record CDC basement fear small pox is lurking, waiting for an encore. And who knows what creative form of pathogen is evolving in one of the world’s mud holes where people drink the same water they use for toilets?
The free world forgets these people exist because we can’t see them. But take a hint. Swine flu is not not about getting ready for swine flu. It’s a sign that we must end the problems by addressing the greatest health threat on the globe. Poverty.
Will we learn anything? Well, just think about it: In 2009, some doomed little kid’s sneeze in a slum near Mexico City is now a major health emergency in the continental United States and most of the developed world.
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I've written exclusively about health since the inception of the Health & Fitness section. I'm an off-road biker, altitude hiker and was into adventure sports until a fall down a Colorado mountain turned my lower back into abstract art. But I'm coming back. 
I agree with you 100%. To take it a step further, the biggest problem with poverty in my mind is malnutrition. Cheap carbohydrates and cheap vegetable fats both have immune-suppressing properties, and these are the two types of food most likely to be consumed by the poor. Good quality protein and fat are hard to come by, which is what the body needs to fight off disease and infection.
These cheap foods are also the main culprits behind heart disease, obesity, diabetes, many cancers, and a host of other afflictions that the impoverished cannot afford.
The first step in fighting poverty should be through nutrition.
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Poverty and malnutrition due to a poor diet of starches and fats make an ideal breeding ground for disease. Another factor I’d add to the comments is basic sanitation. Clean water, frequent hand-washing and removal of waste products from contamination with food and water supply are fundamental to a healthy environment, As the CDC emphasizes in its warning about the spread of swine flu, frequent hand-washing goes a long way towards the containment of colds, flus and other airborne viruses. Before rushing out to get tamiflu or other medications, check that you are not exposing others to your coughs and sneezes and not leaving unwashed any eating utensils you’ve handled. People in poverty-stricken areas with poor sanitation are helpless prey for disease. In modern societies, we have all the resources to keep from exposing or being exposed by a new disease strain. Talk to your pharmacist about the proper uses of alcohol wipes, tissues and other hygienic practices. Here is a locator for The Medicine Shoppe: http://www.medicineshoppe.com/PharmacyLocator.aspx. For more information about swine flu, visit the CDC’s website at http://www.csc.gov/swineflu.
Thanks for this post, Harry. I agree, so many people still don’t understand that we’re interconnected, and what happens “over there” will eventually end up affecting all of us. Even if folks can’t get their heads around the issue morally, there’s a very practical reason to address the underlying causes of poverty - if we don’t, it’s going to come back to bite us, repeatedly.