Just how big is the Swine Flu Pandemic?

When I brought my daughter into the Emergency Room last weekend, I was told by the doctor that she definately had H1N1. When asked if there was a test to make sure, I was told that the test was oonly 50% accurate, and the CDC has urged healthcare providers to treat each case of flu as if it were H1N1 and treat/record accordingly. He backed it up with the statistic that the regular flu has not yet hit, so every flu was to be counted as H1N1.

Doesn’t this seem a bit excessive? I know for a fact that a quick 24 hour flu bug was going around my daughter’s school last week. High fever, vomiting, and over in 24 hours….NOT leading to congestion associated with swine flu.

So, if EVERY fever that comes into the ER is recorded as H1N!, wouldn’t that naturally lead to an abnormally high rate of false positives, further fueling the idea that this pandemic is larger than it is?

I asked if my daughter could be tested, so that I knew if she could skip the H1N1 vaccination when it comes around, and he again told me that I should just go ahead and immunize her when I get the chance….what a waste if she’s already had swine flu!!

In short, I think that it is obvious that the number of cases are indeed inflated, but that is not to diminish the seriousness of the spreading of H1N1…I just wish the government had better record keeping.