photo: cdc  

I keep waiting for the American public to be devastated by the horrendous swine flu pandemic we were promised.   Sure, people have come down with the flu or diseases exhibiting “flu like symptoms” but nothing that comes even close to measuring up to the degree of fear generated by the CDC, the WHO and others.   It’s starting to feel more like the old bird flu threat.  Another disaster that never happened.

There is of course a fear on the part of any number of reporters and editors  that the swine flu might eventually turn out to be just as bad as they told us it might be back when government officials were spending billions on vaccine.  I guess that’s still possible?  That’s probably the only reason most of the major media outlets aren’t screaming about the whole thing being overstated and overspent.

The CDC says 36,000 Americans die of the regular seasonal flu each year.   Well, we’re approaching the end of 2009 and I’d like to know how many Americans have died of seasonal flu vs. the swine flu, but I can’t find the numbers.  There may in fact, be no valid numbers because the CDC told health officials to stop counting the number of cases.

Not everyone is holding their silence.

A Canadian health official, Dr. Richard Schabas, the former Chief Medial Officer for Ontario, is calling the pandemic a “dud.”   Dr. Schabas tells the CBC News,  “It’s really not causing — and is not going to cause and nowhere has caused — significant levels of illness or death,” said Dr. Richard Schabas, Ontario’s former chief medical officer of health.  But governments moved ahead regardless. They ramped up their response, spent a huge amount of money on vaccines and other things. I’m not sure the $1.5 billion includes the cost of new ventilators, the cost of Tamiflu stockpiles … the huge investment that’s been put into planning for what has ultimately turned out to be, from a pandemic perspective, a dud.”

Dr. Schabas is currently the chief medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward counties in eastern Ontario.