Widespread sweeping measures have been taken in Mexico and other countries to halt the spread of the so-called Swine Flu. To date this virus has killed less than 50 people in the current outbreak.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization [estimates that in 4][], 1.27 million people died from road traffic accidents. Just in my home state of Victoria, the number of road deaths this year at 113 puts the worldwide death rate from Swine Flu into the shade.
Where then is the near-panic response of governments and people to such a widespread yet easily preventable cause of death?
I'm prompted to put these thoughts down today, having been pointed to this press release from the Commission for Global Road Safety:
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, said:
"Five million lives are at stake over the coming decade. We have the tools and the vaccines to save these lives. Now we need the international community to demonstrate the political will to succeed…We must respond to this preventable epidemic with urgency and determination."
[via Bike For All, twitterer]
In response to the Swine Flu, US President Obama said:
"Because we have it within our power to limit the potential damage of this virus, we have a solemn and urgent responsibility to take the necessary steps. I would sooner take action now than hesitate and face graver consequences later."
When the impact of road deaths is demonstrably far more widespread than that of the Swine Flu, there must also be a "solemn and urgent responsibility to take the necessary steps" to make roads safer. We have it within our power to limit the actual damage of road trauma. And the consequences of road trauma are already grave. Surely now is the time for action.
More information: Make Roads Safe.
A clarification
In the light of the well-considered comments to this post, I'd just like to clarify that I'm not suggesting that the H1N1 flu is not a serious threat, and I'm certainly not among those who claim that the "Swine Flu" outbreak is a mere beat-up. Influenza is a killer. To quote the WHO again:
Influenza epidemics occur yearly during autumn and winter in temperate regions. Illnesses result in hospitalizations and deaths mainly among high-risk groups (the very young, elderly or chronically ill). Worldwide, these annual epidemics result in about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250 000 to 500 000 deaths. Most deaths associated with influenza in industrialized countries occur among people age 65 or older. In some tropical countries, influenza viruses circulate throughout the year with one or two peaks during rainy seasons.
[emphasis added]
The H1N1 influenza outbreak might well take a huge number of lives this year. And a huge number of deaths might be prevented by the bold and prompt actions of governments and people across the world.
Clearly, both influenza and road trauma will never be reduced to death rates of zero. That's too much to hope for. My point here is merely to highlight the disparity between the widespread high-profile response to the former and the widespread dumb acceptance of the latter.
Comments
The other part of the reason H1N1/2009 hasn't been that bad yet is flu outbreaks take months to run their course. So far, this one is behaving similarly to H1N1/1918 (so-called Spanish Flu), where an initially mild flu spread in the early flu season, but later on mutated to one with a far more severe pathology that killed many millions of people. It's only a handful of years ago that we had a different flu variant that had a very severe pathology but fortunately wasn't at all good at human-human transmission (H5N1 or bird flu, that was tagged).
So while the point on road trauma deaths compared to some other risks to life that we (or the media) blow out of proportion is a good one - say, terrorism, or shark attack - in this particular case I think you've missed the mark. It's an easy mark to miss, though - the science of flu epidemiology isn't exactly bedtime reading, and the risks are difficult to fully explain.
I do agree that more could be done to reduce road trauma, but the WHO's real targets are places like Vietnam, China, Egypt and so on - Vietnam has over 30 deaths a day on the roads. Australia, scary as it can be for cyclists at times, is a paradise of safe roads, by comparison.
Er... except that there's a significant difference in the cause of death. Road deaths will never drop to zero; people are in control of a tonne of metal doing 100km/hr and, well, often are stupid, so accidents are inevitable. Even just sheer bad luck can cause a fast moving car to lose control and kill people.
(Part of the reason swine flu was effectively a non-event is because there was a sudden and effective move to shut it down. So it looks like a beat up, whereas it was more in the realm of "well managed")