I think there isn't really much Defra can put on their site about swine flu as there seems little chance of it spreading among pigs in the UK , as there is no direct contact with pigs from infected areas. The threat of it infecting humans is however a different matter . Would this be making the news if there wasn't a recession ....yes....At the moment the numbers of deaths are very small ,but the ability for those numbers to grow is huge. This is a very similar thing to the flu of 1918 in which millions died thats MILLIONS , 50 million is a number mentioned, which I think in anybodies view is a very large number of people . As for cancer and heart trouble , well there are millions of pounds spent on both and lots of advertising is done to help combat both . However , neither cancer nor heart trouble can be caught via airbourne infection , this flu can . That is the difference.
Anybody who has children, brings them up telling them to go careful when crossing the road, and it would be idiotic not to teach them and inform them of the dangers of cars . If the press and the government were to say nothing about a flu that could spread and kill large numbers wouldn't they be just as idiotic and negligent ? Think back to 2003 and the SARS incident, publicity, and worldwide government action , prevented a death toll that could have been many times worse.
I had Hong Kong flu back in 1968 , and I nearly died with it . I therefore take these rogue flu threats very serious. I don't walk round panicking about them , but I want to be informed as much as possible about what is going on in the world. Back in 1918 it took 6 months for the flu virus to spread around the world and kill 50 million people . Today a similar virus could take less than 24 hours to spread to the same extent . Maybe if someone hasn't had a life threatening bout of flu , they aren't bothered about it , well as with all news, they don't need to read it !!!!
cheers
Russ