H1N1, Are We Still Talking About That?

 

            Ten days in and the news media has calmed down from the initial fear of an H1N1 (Swine flu) pandemic.  Confidence in promised vaccines and the money pumped into stockpiles of antiviral drugs has allowed the nation to breathe, but all too soon.  Although research on H1N1 is underway and people feel that the risk of large scale deaths is under control, this frightening event has failed to grab global attention in the way it is needed.  The causes of H1N1 are largely ignored and the silence of news sources speaks volumes about the actual awareness of the public to the underlying crisis.  People are not paying attention to Mexico’s economy, people’s availability to healthcare, healthy foods and lifestyles.  Again, it is vital to pay attention to the inequality of Mexico’s wealth, availability to clean water, efficient waste systems, and proper grazing areas.  The possibility of pandemic should have brought attention to the need for global health awareness and the realization that if and when pandemic strikes, the poorer nations will be the first to suffer.  Evaluation of H1N1 needs to bring about comprehension of structural violence in and between countries and cause nations to see each other through unveiled eyes.

            The network of factors within Mexico suggests that structural violence and neoliberal approaches have disfigured the way countries view each other.  Structural violence is an analytical framework which views problems within countries as a combination of causes and effects.  Robert Wallace in his article “The NAFTA Flu” claims that one of the main causes of this illness includes agribusinesses moving their companies to “take advantage of cheap labor and land.”  He goes on to say that the NAFTA agreement has only increased inequality between Mexican and U.S products.  NAFTA is a neoliberalistic tactic that has pushed people out of the way in order to clear room for business, power and money-making schemes.  The inequality created by this agreement has not been beneficial.  The subject of this article has been one of the few critiques and suggestions of causes concerning this disease.  With the outbreak of H1N1, these factors were swept under the rug of paranoia.  News sources such as CNN and BBC were invested more in the deaths of victims than the causes.  The fear was and currently is understandable; H1N1 is a strain of the virus that killed millions in the Spanish Flu of 1918.  Ages 20-40 died in greater numbers than the very young and old, thus the first deaths of H1N1 and relative ages were frightening (Taubenberger).  However it is necessary, especially as fear is becoming caution, to realize that poor and unequal will die first.  Access to healthcare for particularly rural nations is a determining factor in the spread of disease.  Understanding that structural violence and other possible causes and how they are intertwined with H1N1 is vital in conquering this disease.

             H1N1 is not simply a flu that needs a vaccine; it is a wake-up call for people to approach economic and social inequality as factors which, in the direst situations, have the ability to harm everyone.  Pundits like Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage have seen H1N1 as an opportunity to call for illegal immigration restrictions.  Their aim is not to further understanding but promote divisions.  WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on April 1 gave a speech which had the aim of asking for global solutions to economic crisis and its impact on health.  In another speech in Turkey April 27, she critiqued market fundamentalism and its effects on health and called for global interdependency in this crisis.  Chan’s speeches are excellent reminders and a needed contrast to misguided pundits opinions.  H1N1 is a warning and a call for every person to comprehend the real issues behind the paranoia.  If this is possible, then global health and interdependency is within reach.  It is all too easy to forget that Bird Flu, a much more deadly flu than H1N1, is still out there and no vaccine has been found.  Poverty-stricken nations will always be hit hardest and the sooner nations view economic vices as problematic, the better.  This is not the time to focus on political agenda that partitions nations away from each other but rather the common goal of vaccination.  Poverty and illness are only symptoms of economic and social inequalities and approaching these issues is the first step in solving them.

(Urg.  My citations,  forgive them, they are doing what I want them to…)

 

Chan, Margaret, Dr. “Impact of financial crisis on health: a truly global solution is needed.” 1 April 2009.

<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/financial_crisis_20090401/en/index.html>

Holland, Joshua. “Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage Use Swine Flu Crisis to Peddle Their Xenophobia.”

29 April 2009.

<http://www.alternet.org/immigration/138859/michelle_malkin_and_michael_savage_use_swine_fl

u_crisis_to_peddle_their_xenophobia/?page=entire>

Malkin, Michelle. “Hey, maybe we’ll finally get serious about the borders.” 25 April 2009.

<http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/25/hey-maybe-well-finally-get-serious-about-borders-now/&gt;

Taubenberger JK, Morens DM. 1918 influenza: the mother of all pandemics. 2006 Jan. 6 May 2009

<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm>

Wallace, Robert. “The NAFTA Flu.” 28 April 2009.

<http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/the-nafta-flu/&gt;

“U.S. swine flu cases grow to 91, including child who died.” 29 April 2009.

<http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html&gt;

“US reports first swine flu death.” 29 April 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8024690.stm&gt;