Editors Note:
Associate Director Jeff Stier presented the following message as a guest on Dayside with Linda Vester on the Fox News Channel.
Later in the day, Medical Director Dr. Gilbert Ross communicated this message in a separate appearance on Fox News.
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The latest public health alarm was provoked by an unbelievable lapse in a usually simple testing procedure: instead of sending out common viral specimens for a proficiency test to thousands of labs worldwide, someone sent specimens of a pathogenic--that means, dangerous--viral type, the influenza type H2N2 which caused a global flu outbreak in 1957, killing between one and four million. This error occurred over several months, beginning in October of last year, and didn't end until a Canadian virologist detected the unusual virus and notified the WHO, which in turn told our CDC, which sent out a hasty alert to over 3,700 labs around the world, advising them to destroy all remaining specimens.
While this inexcusable breach in microbial security warrants explanation and correction, it is no cause for actual concern among the public, either here in the U.S. nor around the world. No increase in unusual flu cases has been detected, and there is no reason to believe that the misplaced bug has been or will be released into the world outside of the various recipient labs. Even if it got out somehow, there is no evidence that it has retained its infectivity over the past 45 years. Indeed, after the initial swath of death and illness receded in 1957, the same virus hung around until 1967, but without causing much in the way of human death after its initial onslaught.
The real lesson here: pay attention to real threats, such as the yearly flu epidemic we experience each winter, and which accounts for well over 30,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. This toll can be reduced by a simple measure: all those in the CDC recommended high risk groups should get their flu vaccine each year. While far from perfect, there is no question that this shot, if actually received by over 90% of those at risk (instead of the abominable rates of approximately 50% more commonly seen), would prevent many thousands of deaths. So stop worrying about the ghosts of old pandemics--and start thinking now about preventing potential new epidemics coming to our country in only a few months.
