dleewo wrote:txfireguy2003 wrote: To put things into perspective....20,000 people die as a result of complications associated with the common flu every year. .
That actually does put it into perspective. I don't know if 20,000 is in the US or worldwide, but that is almost 55 people per day whereas the current reported deaths from swine flu is just over 100 over several days.
It's actually higher. On average each year, 36,000 people in the United States are killed by seasonal flu, and over 200,000 are hospitalized.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Worldwide (as you mentioned in your later post) there are between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths caused by regular ol' seasonal flu.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;