34,000 people die each year from flu? Wrong

I see people saying that this h1n1 isn't that bad because the normal flu kills 34,000 people each year and this flu has only killed like 160 people so far in reports. Something to put in perspective is how fast 160 people have died in a short time frame compared to the whole year of the normal flu. Has anyone double checked that 34,000 figure that's thrown around? I decided to.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Great article from 2005. Important snip from it

"For example, CDC states that the historic 1968-9 "Hong Kong flu" pandemic killed 34,000 Americans. At the same time, CDC claims 36,000 Americans annually die from flu. What is going on, asks Doshi?

The CDC uses indirect modeling methods to estimate the number of deaths associated with influenza. Thus the much publicized figure of 36,000 is not an estimate of yearly flu deaths, as widely reported in both the lay and scientific press, but an estimate - generated by a model - of flu-associated death, he says. "

It also talks about how it uses these higher numbers to then get better funding and public buy in for getting flu shots.

www.wrongdiagnosis.com...

some raw facts in the link above are interesting but it notes a number of 20,000 per year and that included complications. We are hearing if people die with H1N1 and say diabetes like the guy that met the president in Mexico, they say they died from the complications but link the death to the diabetes.

Another thing to note is that the deaths we are seeing are people in a healthy age bracket but normal flu kills the young and the old. In theory we could see the same number of deaths in young and old because of complications plus any deaths in the healthy and middle aged groups because of this new strain.

Some great info in here:

michellemalkin.com...

"[U]ntil 2001, the CDC reported flu, pneumonia and ILI
(influenza-like-illness) deaths as a single statistic, around 36,000 a year. In 2001, the CDC separated out the influenza deaths and the actual number of deaths attributed to influenza fell to 895, with pneumonia taking the lions share of the remainder….Latest statistics show that there were approximate 142 deaths in children under 18 attributed to flu in the 2003-2004 flu season."

So it looks like the real number of deaths that the CDC counts each year is directly proportional to how many are needed to spin their PR agenda on flu shots.

If you look at just the deaths associated to the flu and not the onset of pneumonia or complications then we probably have already passed the number of deaths in a normal year with this new variant of h1n1. This is why the CDC and WHO are freaking out. These deaths have also happened in a very short time frame.

Here is the CDCs info page about the flu.

It states that about 36,000 people in the US die each year from the flu.

CDC

Interesting read

Hey thanks for the link. I can tell you decided to not read anything I spent time on posting. If you did read what I wrote then you would find I list those same figures in some of my links.

I'm kind of interested, while I see one recorded death in the US, I'm aware the number is larger in Mexico at this time.

However, no where do I see a death toll of 160. I do, however, see about that number of of actual infections.

Remarkably, a news site has a slightly less terror inducing statement than the rest of the news portals:
abcnews.go.com...

[edit on 1-5-2009 by RuneSpider]

Originally posted by RuneSpider
I'm kind of interested, while I see one recorded death in the US, I'm aware the number is larger in Mexico at this time.

However, no where do I see a death toll of 160. I do, however, see about that number of of actual infections.

Remarkably, a news site has a slightly less terror inducing statement than the rest of the news portals:
abcnews.go.com...

[edit on 1-5-2009 by RuneSpider]

I like this in that link. "But by comparison an estimated 600 people die of tuberculosis" Didn't Ron Paul say that number was like 13,000 deaths?

It's funny how everyone twists numbers around to make a point yet it seems they can be exaggerated to what ever way they need them.

reply to post by whoshotJR


It is something to be aware of, and shouldnt be ignored.
but the statistics are: Approx 20,000 americans die every year from flu like symptons. ONE american (who had recently visited family in mexico) has died because of this. This is where the issue comes in. It is in the less developed areas that people are dying at a high rate.

While this does not make it okay, IT IS a symptom of the quality of life down there, not the flu.

reply to post by whoshotJR


Star and flag for you.

It does makes you think.
With the figures being lower than is stated.
What is the ratio between actual flu deaths and those who have died from having the flu shots?
Close call ?
Or the shots themselves have a bigger death rate?

No no no.That sort of thing wouldnt happen.
Governments wouldnt let it.

Oh look I just got another 2 inches out of nowhere,the misses will be pleased.

Well it's pure evil if the fudge numbers to increase funding for something nobody would ever look at under normal circumstances. This is a good example of agenda driven politics and the Military-Industrial Complex.

You're right in that there is no comprehensive, accurate way to count flu deaths.

www.cdc.gov...

www.cdc.gov...

You can see the fairly large swings in the estimates with the CDC generally picking the median number.

Why? Despite TV shows, there are no large CSI teams investigating deaths with multi-million dollar labs. Few autopsies are done. Each doc makes a diagnosis which may not be consistent across docs, if the person is seen by a doc at all. Flu typically progresses to pneumonia which you point out may be the listed "cause" of death. Which really killed them? Chicken-egg?

So the CDC uses statistical models. And their data and data analysis appears to lag by 3-5 years as state data trickles in.

Sloppy? Yep. Mendacious? Hard to guess.

Given 312m people, even 40,000 deaths is not a big number. The real impacts are the hospitalizations and economic impacts (or like WWI the impact on the military and the war).

In a small flu outbreak in LAFB a few years ago, this not only stopped the training system, but cost about $7M.