As the college campuses began to populate, stories began to emerge about the high rate of swine flu among students. However, a little known fact was that most places were not actually testing for swine flu. Any student presenting with flu-like symptoms was presumed to have H1N1 because seasonal flu does not usually hit until much later in the fall.
When I heard this, I was suspicious of whether there really was an outbreak of swine flu on campus, but there was just no data one way or the other. Now there is: the world-renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia routinely tests patients for rhinovirus (the common cold) and H1N1. They found that most of their patients with flu-like symptoms had a cold, not swine flu.
But, there’s more…
Doctors and researchers are now worried that this is a new, more severe strain of rhinovirus (second verse, same as the first). It seems to me that because hospitals and doctors are seeing a rise in the number of patients with respiratory illnesses, and schools are closing due to low attendance, that the experts think this cold is more severe than normal colds.
This, again, is highly suspect reasoning. Schools, doctors, public health bureaucrats, and just about everyone else is recommending that people with a respiratory illness should not go to work or school and, instead, should see a doctor to be treated for the flu. So, while parents may normally send their child to school or choose to save time and money by no taking their little one to the doctor at the first sniffle, they are now petrified of the swine flu and taking all precautions. Thus, the increase in school closings and hospital admissions may simply be an unintended consequence of our leaders’ fearmongering.
Two more points. For anyone who thinks that science is not political, consider this quote:
A fledgling, highly controversial theory suggests that circulating rhinovirus can somehow delay the spread of influenza – one more reason, Mackay [a leading researcher in emerging viruses] said, to increase the testing and study of rhinovirus.
And, consider that many students across the nation have been given Tamiflu for what may very well have been the common cold and, as the article states, “Tamiflu…is useless against rhinovirus.” Good for Roche, bad for everyone else.
11:03 am on November 19, 2009
