Swine Flu In Perspective

Posted by Eric de Place

04/29/2009 07:40 AM

150 deaths is just another day on the highway.

flypig Not to belittle anyone's anxiety about the swine flu, but I'm feeling a little peevish this morning. Today's newspaper headlines are screaming that the global death toll appears to have surpassed 150, including the first death outside of Mexico. As a consequence, countries are banning imports, setting up travel restrictions, and scrambling public health resources. Everyone's going code-red.

But 150 deaths -- the swine flu grand total to date -- is just a bad day on the highways of the US and Canada. Day and in day out, North America racks up an average of about 1 traffic fatality every 12 minutes, to total about 42,000 in the US and approximately 3,000 in Canada annually. And according to one estimate, global traffic fatalities are in the neighborhood of 800,000 people per year!

Don't get me wrong, 150 deaths is awful. And if there's a chance that swine flu could turn into a global pandemic then we should definitely be marshalling all available resources.

What bugs me is that when it comes to traffic fatalities, few people really notice... or even care. Maybe you'll see an occasional headline on page B-6 or maybe not. That's despite the fact that car collisions are the leading cause of death in the US under the age of 45. Vehicles injure or cripple many multiples of the tens of thousands that they kill, often in the prime of life. To say nothing of the secondary health effects of driving that include worsened air quality and rising obesity rates.

So where's the outrage? Where's the alarm? Why isn't the World Health Organization issuing a high-alert to nations everywhere. Stay out of your cars! Stop driving! Stop spending billions of dollars to design high-speed death corridors in the hearts of your major cities!

I suppose that will happen about the time that pigs fly.

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Comments

Posted by Rob Zako 04/29/2009 12:32 PM

Yeah, why are people so irrational in what they fear?

In case you did not catch it, there was a long story in the New York Times Magazine about why people aren't more concerned about climate change. One of the researchers mentioned in the story, Anthony Leiserowitz, was at the University of Oregon before going to Yale. But others in Oregon are pursuing this line of research.

Or for a more generic summary, see the Wikipedia article on Risk perception.

None of which is meant to take away from your sense of puzzlement and outrage, which I share.

Posted by Fuego 05/01/2009 01:19 PM

This is the exact rant I have been on for days!!! Thank you, for getting it out there to a wider audience!

Posted by David Levinger 05/01/2009 02:19 PM

I Just got back from five days in Mexico City during the swine flu virus. All the museums, schools, and public agencies were shut down. There was a soccer match being televised from a stadium nearby and the stadium was completely empty of fans, with police blocking every entrance.

This would be a completely effective way to reduce traffic fatalities--just close all of the streets and ban driving. Let's try this at least for just one day, no?

Posted by Brian Wegener 05/01/2009 05:12 PM

The number of people infected by a virus grows exponentially.

While the death of 150 strangers from the swine flu may not seem significant when compared to the number of people killed in automobile accidents, we know that highway deaths won't grow exponentially. In fact, with new technologies like air bags, anti-lock brakes, crush zones and stability controls, highway death rates have been declining.

If we don't take appropriate action in the face of a threatened pandemic of swine flu, it may soon dwarf the highway death rate.

Take the pandemic threat seriously.

Posted by Greg Raisman 05/01/2009 05:14 PM

Thanks for the great article, Eric.

I bet you'll find these graphs interesting: ftp://ftp.trans.ci.portland.or.us/raisman/Fatal Trends/Fatal Overview April 16 2009.pdf

Thanks.
Greg Raisman
Community and School Traffic Safety Partnership
Portland Bureau of Transportation

Posted by ml johnstone 05/08/2009 01:31 PM

Its my rant too. And thank for it.
Unfortunately, what should have been forseen decades ago wasn't. Credit for that goes with the governments colluding with the auto companies and their total ad blitz on the public. Public transit was for the lower classes and "coloured" people.
It will be a huge task to cure people of the auto habit. Any other form of transit to them is just too inconvenient. Cars are more important than people.
The auto companies have been bread and butter for the media.
Taxpayers pay in public funds about $400 Billion for use and social costs.
The average N. American spends about $ 9 to $100,000 a year for each vehicle. More than food.
In BC, politicians, police and other celebrities have speeding tickets and drunk driving charges.
Make this coming year: the YEAR of the PEDESTRIAN.
We should have had class action suits against these auto companies years ago.