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CBS led off its newscast with an apparently sensational headline from the Centers of Disease Control. In-house physician Jon LaPook told us that the H1N1 swine 'flu has infected four times more Americans than just six days ago, some 22m, causing 3,900 deaths. LaPook immediately calmed us down. "The agency insists that the outbreak has not actually worsened." Instead the CDC's new computer model assigns many sicknesses to H1N1 even if they were not tested for the virus. Even after the adjustment, the H1N1 death toll is "only one tenth of what we see in a typical 'flu season." On NBC, Robert Bazell offered anecdotes from the frontlines of the outbreak. He visited the pediatric emergency room at Boston's Children's Hospital where visits have increased by 50% over the past few weeks.
Amid the badmouthing of socialized healthcare during the domestic political debate over reform, Sheila MacVicar offered positive publicity for Britain's government-run National Health Service. Why are there no long lines for the H1N1 vaccine in England? Why is there no panic about short supplies? CBS' MacVicar offered two explanations. First, Europeans make their vaccine differently, with an additive, producing four times as many doses from the same active ingredient. Second, the centralized healthcare bureaucracy of the NHS can prioritize patients according to their risk factors and underlying conditions. There are no lines for shots at clinics, because "vaccination is by invitation only." If you need one, your doctor's office calls you by telephone.
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