CHICAGO — Did government health officials "cry swine" when they sounded the alarm on what looked like a threatening new flu?
The so-far mild swine flu outbreak has many people saying all the talk about a devastating global epidemic was just fear-mongering hype. But that's not how public health officials see it, calling complacency the thing that keeps them up at night.
The World Health Organization added a scary-sounding warning Thursday, predicting up to 2 billion people could catch the new flu if the outbreak turns into a global epidemic.
Many blame such alarms and the media coverage for creating an overreaction.
Schools shut down, idling healthy kids and forcing parents to stay home from work; colleges scaled back or even canceled graduation ceremonies; a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Chicago was canned; face masks and hand sanitizers sold out — all because of an outbreak that seems no worse than a mild flu season.
"I don't know anyone who has it. I haven't met anyone who knows anyone who contracted it," said Carl Shepherd, a suburban Chicago video producer and father of two. "It's really frightening more people than it should have. It's like crying wolf."
Two weeks after news broke about the new flu strain, there have been 46 deaths — 44 in Mexico and two in the United States. More than 2,300 are sick in 24 countries, including more than 800 U.S. cases. Those are much lower numbers than were
Miranda Smith, whose graduation ceremony at Cisco Junior College in central Texas was canceled to avoid spreading the flu, blames the media.
"It's been totally overblown," she said Thursday.
"Everyone seems to know it's not going to kill you and it's not as deadly as they think," she said. "Everybody needs to just calm down and chill out."
Public health authorities acknowledge their worst fears about the new virus have not materialized. But no one's officially saying it's time to relax. Experts worry that people will become too complacent and tune out the warnings if the virus returns in a more dangerous form in the fall.
"People are taking a sigh of relief too soon," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wednesday, Besser said the outbreak in the United States appears to be less severe than was first feared. But the virus is still spreading and its future potential as a killer is not clearly understood.
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