Is H1N1 Pandemic Only a "Category One"?

By: Lauren Seifert
Topics: Washington Unplugged

It's only November, but fears over the H1N1 virus have already hit a fever pitch, with some Americans uneasy about their lack of access to a vaccine that's in relatively short supply.

There are signs, however, that H1N1 may turn out to be less deadly than many feared. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a report last week which shows similarities between H1N1 and other strains circulating in the population since 1988. According to the NIH, healthy adults may have a degree of immunity that can blunt the severity of an H1N1 infection.

Quest Diagnostics, which provides clinical laboratory services globally, also released a report last Friday stating that rates of infection by the H1N1 virus may have peaked in late October due to the impact of H1N1 vaccinations and changes in physician test-ordering practices.

So how bad is this pandemic really turning out to be? Some medical experts are calling for officials to inform the public that, despite the hype, the worst-case scenario has not, and likely will not, come to pass.

On Monday's "Washington Unplugged," Sharyl Attkisson was joined by Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health and now Health Editor for U.S. News & World Report, and Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder of Mercola.com.

Attkisson quoted an article Dr. Healy had written for U.S. News and World Report in September which noted that this pandemic "is among the mildest, rated a category 1, similar in ferocity to ordinary seasonal flu."

"It was not the pandemic that usually is associated with high mortality and morbidity and that's something we have to take a look at, " Healy said, "because we used to call something a pandemic if it did have high death rates, high mortality and morbidity, this one does not."

Dr. Mercola weighed in on the conflicting reports regarding the severity of the H1N1 pandemic and it's affect on public perception.

"I think the evidence speaks for itself," he said. "Most of the polls that have been done on this show that the majority of people are choosing not to receive this vaccine. They haven't been convinced, despite the massive media and public health recommendations to do so."

"Watch Monday's "Washington Unplugged" above. The epsiode also features an interview with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) about a proposed surtax to pay for a troop increase in Afghanistan.

"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

Lauren Seifert
Lauren Seifert is an associate producer for CBSNews.com.
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by One4Truth November 30, 2009 7:54 PM EST: True, the virus probably will not remain as it emerged, but how do we know the actual numbers now that the CDC is not counting but rather, estimating, the numbers? At the end of August, the cases of "presumed" swine flu were the numbers being represented as actual swine flu, whether or not the confirming tests were done. As an agency whose job it is to maintain accurate data and release that data to us (who paid for it and own it), I would think they would be rabid about keeping an exact accounting. Instead, every "flu-like illness" is being diagnosed as "flu" and every "flu" is assumed to be H1N1 because that was the primarily prevalent virus circulating six months ago.

All the numbers are wildly inaccurate and since the CDC refuses to keep an actual count of H1N1, we won't have any idea how many cases of real swine flu or mutated swine flu there are, maybe ever. The numbers are overinflated. My question is: Who benefits from this inaccuracy?

Our problem as a nation this fall and winter is less a virus resistant to antiviral drugs and more a governmental agency resistant to telling the truth to the people it purports to serve. Which is more virulent?; Reply to this comment


by bradkt1 November 23, 2009 5:42 PM EST: Sure, it's only a Category 1...right now. However, just last week, CBS reported about a cluster of H1N1 cases (in North Carolina, I believe) that were resistant to Tamiflu. There were also about 50 other cases worldwide. The big fear of health care professionals was whether this particular strain of H1N1 would mutate into something that we have no treatment for and was much deadlier to humans.

We are not out of the woods...yet.; Reply to this comment