Disease

 

     As can be seen in this report from Fox News, the media loves a pandemic threat.  It seems like every year we are told that a new pandemic is going to kill hundreds of thousands.  The diseases range from swine flu, to avian flu, to SARS, to mad cow disease and these are only the major pandemic threats from 1996 to 2011.  Although it is important and valuable to have a citizenry which is educated and cautious about disease, many media reports work to scare people into taking unnecessary measures and fearing everyone who has the slightest cough.  For comparison, the following is an example of more responsible reporting about the swine flu.

 

     The swine flu outbreak, although not nearly as dangerous as we were told it would be, did cause many to die but what about some of the others which caused many to change their habits and spend time and money to protect themselves against these threats?

     Since variant CJD (mad cow disease) was first reported in 1996, a total of 217 patients with this disease from 11 countries have been identified (CDC, 2010). As of October 2009, variant CJD cases have been reported from the following countries: 170 from the United Kingdom, 25 from France, 5 from Spain, 4 from Ireland, 3 from the United States, 3 in the Netherlands, 2 in Portugal, 2 in Italy, and one each from Canada, Japan, and Saudi Arabia (CDC, 2010). Two of the three U.S. cases, two of the four cases from Ireland and the single cases from Canada and Japan were likely exposed to the BSE agent while residing in the United Kingdom (CDC, 2010). One of the 25 French cases may also have been infected in the United Kingdom (CDC, 2010).

     What about bird flu?  How many US deaths have been caused by this global pandemic threat? Zero.  Although bird flu kills 60% of those who contract it, it is a relatively uncommon disease.  The following statistics about bird flu were taken from the WHO (2010) and show that only 608 (less than 1/10,000,000) people world wide have ever contracted this disease.

        Country                                 Cases                                    Deaths

• Azerbaijan                                  8                                             5
• Bangladesh                                 6                                             0
• PR China                                  43                                           28
• Djibouti                                      1                                             0 
• Egypt                                     168                                           60 
• Indonesia                                191                                         159
• Iraq                                           3                                             2
• Laos                                          2                                             2
• Burma                                        1                                            0
• Nigeria                                       1                                             1
•  Pakistan                                    3                                             1
• Thailand                                   25                                            17
• Turkey                                     12                                             4
• Vietnam                                  123                                            61

So a disease which, according to the media, was supposed to become a pandemic didn't even make it to a highly developed country.  Even a more successful disease like SARS only managed to infect 8096 and kill 774 worldwide (27 cases and no fatalities in the US) (WHO, n.d.).  
     Playing to peoples fears of disease is not just limited to news.  Shows like the walking dead and movies like Contagion use the idea of disease to sell tickets and ad spots.  These shows use real and fictional diseases but constantly remind us that we could be on the brink of extinction.

 
      So given the constant chanting of "the sky is falling" why do we continue to fear the constant claims of global pandemics?  According to Tudor's parameters of fear, this is because when disease is the issue, the environment which is threatening is everywhere outside our doors. Like my blog about school shootings the media and culture is fearful of the disease making it seem more credible and like bullets, disease can even harm those who are not physically vulnerable in other ways.  In the case of disease, the changing social structure is most likely globalism. From this it is clear to see that media tends to play towards our fear of disease in an effort to profit from our fears whether by selling movie tickets or ad space for gold and high tech underground bunkers.  It is natural to be afraid of things which can kill us, but when paired with people who seek to profit off these fears, a cultural anxiety can be created which is bad for us all.


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010. "Epidemiology of vCJD and BSE" http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/epidemiology.htm
World Health Organization. 2012. "Cumulative number of confirmed human cases for avian influenza A(H5N1) reported to WHO, 2003-2012" http://www.who.int/influenza/human_animal_interface/H5N1_cumulative_table_archives/en/index.html
World Health Organization. n.d. "Summary of probable SARS cases with onset of illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003"
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/index.html
Tudor A. 2003. "A (macro) sociology of rear?" The Sociological Review 51: 238–256.