NY Guv orders state of panic over swine flu

Emulating the Obama Administration, New York Gov. David Paterson has “declared a state of emergency, saying a recent rise in swine flu cases has created a ‘disaster,'” according to the Associated Press.

The executive order suspends state law and allows more health care professionals to administer vaccines.

The emergency? AP says at least 75 residents have died of swine flu in the last seven months. By comparison, given its population size we’d expect over 2,200 New York residents to die annually of seasonal flu.

Total reported New York cases are 2,738 cases according to Flucount; whereas again going by its population and CDC estimates New York probably has over 12,000 seasonal flu hospitalizations each year.

So where’s the fire, governor?

Yet the underlying reality is that, as I noted in my IBD article “Obama Administration’s Flu Fearmongering,” emergency rooms are being swamped with the worried well and the slightly ill. But it’s precisely because of such things as emergency proclamations.

As it happens, there are plenty of people who can administer vaccines, just very little vaccine to distribute. What the governor should do is to tell his constituents the truth about swine flu, that data from New York City show that at worst swine flu kills only a tenth the percentage of people as seasonal flu.

But the truth just makes government look bad, as opposed to being the peoples’ savior. So instead, the governor injects another dose of hysteria.