3,000 deaths or 60,000 deaths. Which is it?

[johnfm]

So, news this morning suggested headline figures of POSSIBLY 60,000 deaths from swine flu in the UK.

It turns out that the estimate was 3,000 to 60,000!

Why didn't they just say 1 to 55,000,000 and cover themselves...

Idiots

[Tycho]

I'm guessing that 3000 deaths doesn't make a good scary headline....

[ewenm]

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

[shakotan]

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

[littlegreenfairy]

shakotan said:

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

The 6 year old had underlying heart conditions that no-one knew about according to Sky.

[Soovy]

ZaNu Labour policy is to frighten the plebs so they'll vote for good old Gordon to protect them.

[TankRizzo]

shakotan said:

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

I quite clearly remember watching the news where it said the GP died of natural causes.

[madbadger]

The expectation is for 6000 to die from normal flu.

ETA: I think this is based on historical data rather than making up a number.

Edited by madbadger on Friday 17th July 09:37

[Hyperion]

If a news story starts with the government says... ignore it.
I bet Gordon is loving every minute of this...the best way to control people is to keep them in a state of fear.
You aren't going to die. Now go to the pub and stop worrying.

[Soovy]

Hyperion said:

You aren't going to die. Now go to the pub and stop worrying.

Bang on.

They're simply trying to frighten the average thick, jobless scum who make up a singificant proportion of the UK population into thinking that they might die.

[Spiritual_Beggar]

TankRizzo said:

shakotan said:

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

I quite clearly remember watching the news where it said the GP died of natural causes.

This is true.

[otolith]

If a bad news item includes best case and worst case scenarios, the media will run the worst case as a headline. See every global warming story, ever.

[Einion Yrth]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

TankRizzo said:

shakotan said:

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

I quite clearly remember watching the news where it said the GP died of natural causes.

This is true.

Yes, but dieing of 'flu IS natural causes.

[ewenm]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

TankRizzo said:

shakotan said:

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Too much spin, not enough facts.

Recently, a doctor and a 6 year old girl died from swine flu without any other underlying medical condition or illness.

I quite clearly remember watching the news where it said the GP died of natural causes.

This is true.

So Doctor was natural causes, and the 6-year-old had heart problems only discovered after death. My original question stands then. "If you're generally healthy, you don't need to worry about it" would appear to be the sensible message.

[jamieboy]

ewenm said:

Has anyone in the UK died of Swine Flu yet rather than dying with Swine Flu and underlying health issues?

Did this turn out to actually be swine flu, or something else?

[elster]

madbadger said:

The expectation is for 6000 to die from normal flu.

ETA: I think this is based on historical data rather than making up a number.

Edited by madbadger on Friday 17th July 09:37

What kind of a fool looks at facts?!

I even heard wild estimations of 0.5% of the population!!!

[shakotan]

Looks like I've succumbed to media hype as well then.

I didn't see the following stories regarding the doctor and young child, only heard on the news about them "dying of swine flu without other conditions".

[otolith]

ewenm said:

So Doctor was natural causes, and the 6-year-old had heart problems only discovered after death. My original question stands then. "If you're generally healthy, you don't need to worry about it" would appear to be the sensible message.

Not much consolation if the child appeared to be generally healthy, prior to dying and undergoing autopsy.

[ewenm]

otolith said:

ewenm said:

So Doctor was natural causes, and the 6-year-old had heart problems only discovered after death. My original question stands then. "If you're generally healthy, you don't need to worry about it" would appear to be the sensible message.

Not much consolation if the child appeared to be generally healthy, prior to dying and undergoing autopsy.

Of course not. The point being that you need to be very unlucky to have problems from swine flu. It's not worth most people worrying about.

[johnfm]

All of which makes me wonder why people who should know better (ie civil servants in the appropriate departments) don't present a more rounded set of scenarios.

3,000 to 60,000 is just totally useless.