Yesterday’s conflicting advice to pregnant women as to what action they should take during the swine flu epidemic has led, at last, to the posting of an advice note on the Department of Health’s website.
The episode was a further illustration of the Government’s frankly chaotic response to the outbreak. The new Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, will apparently make a statement later today, urging the public not to panic and saying that the virus can be avoided by making “commonsense adjustments” to their lives.
This, however, is somewhat at odds with the alarming view expressed by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, yesterday, when he informed Andrew Marr that swine flu is a greater threat to Britain than terrorism, a warning somewhat diluted when he went on to say:
“In the vast majority of cases it is a mild illness. We have got stocks of anti-virals to cover over 50% of the population and a vaccine on the way.”
The Government really should get its act together by putting up one spokesman on the issue, getting its FluLine up and running, and asking everyone else to pipe down.
Extraordinarily, though the illness appears to be raging everywhere, I have yet to meet or hear of a single individual in North Wales who has been affected by it. It’s not just a personal impression, either; this graph, from the Health Protection Agency, shows that Wales, for some reason, is the least affected part of the country:
I am intrigued to know why the Welsh, uniquely, should be enjoying this apparent immunity. Sensible suggestions are invited.
1 Comment
July 20, 2009 at 5:50 am
Dear David. I know you wanted sensible, but could the reason be that Wales is just too cold, sunless and wet to sustain a virus born in the Tropics?