Trust for America's Health Fantasy Report

This is going in my politcal and health blogs because it has both political and health ramifications.

The report says that in the coming pandemic, we can expect about 500,000 fatalities. Wow! Really! That many?

Oh, wait, though! In 1918, 645,000 died in the U.S. from the Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu had an overall death rate of .5% of the population, with would mean, if it struck now, that 1.5 million Americans could be expected to die. Hm... something's off here.

Given that the H5N1 flu has a MUCH higher fatality rate, it would not be unexpected that 1 or 2% of the population die, which would be 3 to 6 million, though I think it would be a lot higher. Also, given that investigators recently found that the TamiFlu vaccine was useless because Chinese farmers had been using a version for a couple of years, this letting the virus 'evolve' (for those believers in Creationism, just ignore the 'evolve' remark; God MADE the virus more resistant so as to hurt us.), we are virtually without protection.

So, how does this Trust for America's Health come up with the 1/2 million number? Apparently, Tarot card reading or tea leaves or some such nonsense, because they're obviously not using real facts.

In the next day or so, I'm going to research their board and staff members and find out just how closely they're tied to the Bush anti-science people; my guess is closer than a Bush is tied to his mommy. (ok, maybe not THAT closely, but close nonetheless.)

Please check back.