. . . "Then I headed off to the County Health and Human Services Agency, where, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, her death is being investigated.
"What I found there was shocking - take a look at this Dec. 22 Influenza Watch chart: Flu cases have spiked up significantly in the past two weeks. Swine flu, which is relatively rare, now accounts for 14.3% of all flu cases. We can also see from the various charts shown that there was a bad outbreak last year and this year seems to be on track to echo to a lesser extent that same dangerous pattern" . . .
. . . "More searching shows that swine flu has been in this area in the past. A decade ago, H1N1 shut down my old high school as a public safety measure. I had my flu shot. But what I can't ascertain from news reports is whether that strain of the flu is included in this year's shot. I only found an old report saying that after the 2009 outbreak, H1N1 was included in the following year's serum. Not seeing any news on that, either."What does this tell us? That a big story has been going on and none of the local presses are spotting it. Seriously, I looked. That's a public health issue that affects everyone, and nobody has been reporting it. Not the local TV stations, not the San Diego Union-Tribune, not the local alternative presses. This is a different sort of media dereliction of duty compared to the typical political bias, and makes me wonder if it's the result of so many layoffs in the news industry that expertise on public health has gone by the wayside.
"Either way, the press has fallen down on the job by not warning of the potential for danger in San Diego over this deadly illness." . . .
Boy who died in U.S. custody tested positive for influenza; cause of death still under investigation
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