Mark Honigsbaum on the swine flu pandemic that never was. Apparently, the panicmongering was the right thing to do.
But as all good schoolboys know, post hoc doesn’t make propter hoc. Just because 65,000 Britons didn’t die this winter does not mean that the computer models were wrong or that the Department of Health shouldn’t have ordered 50m doses of Tamiflu, only that prognostications about pandemics, like prognostications about earthquakes, are not an exact science.
But they were wrong and all that Tamiflu was wasteful. The pandemic didn’t happen, just as the SARS pandemic didn’t happen, just as the bird flu pandemic didn’t happen, just as the CJD pandemic didn’t happen, just as the AIDS pandemic didn’t happen. Exact science, no I’ll grant you, and given that – along with experience from previous scares that didn’t happen, perhaps a more cautious approach would have been the right one? All those who are saying “told you so” that Honigsbaum complains about are right and were right. Maybe that’s why he is complaining…
The only pandemic that the government should be worried about are c. diff. and MRSA and stuff like that in NHS hospitals, but sorting that out is like, too much hassle, maan – and sorting it would reduce rather than increase the whole climate of fear, ergo from the government’s point of view there is no advantage in sorting it out.
.-= My last blog ..Looking at both sides of the equation. And still coming to the wrong conclusion. =-.
And you can add the MMR scare thingy to the list. I’m not sure what we were supposed to be scared of, but probably just scared generally.
Hmmm. Didn’t work with me. Every time they try to scare me I switch to contempt mode.
I determined never to get that shot and am glad about it now.
.-= My last blog ..Silent Saturday =-.
The problem is that the scaremongers always have a retort which keeps the sheep penned – yet. To everything you point out they will add it and like your previous post the sheep will graze thankful for the inconvenience imposed on them by the righteous.
.-= My last blog ..The best quote of the day was missed =-.
I like this bit:
“it seems to me that the backlash against swine flu is a species of conspiracy-thinking”
Does he know that there are investigations into collusion between the pharma companies and the WHO?
.-= My last blog ..The headline that epitomises the New Labour era: ‘New Rules’ =-.