Having Swine Flu But Not Being Sick

Thousands of children may have had swine flu without even knowing it, scientists claimed yesterday.

This headline reveals what most scientists (and a few smart doctors) have always known – serious infection is the exception rather than the rule.  For everyone person who actually gets symptoms many, many have no symptoms at all.

See this astonishing article here.

Up to a third of schoolchildren in some parts of England have had the virus but fewer than one in ten have actually been ill, according to the Health Protection Agency  Between three and five times as many children have had the virus as have been ill, the group’s research found.  Prof Maria Zambon, director of the HPA’s centre for infection, said affected regions included London and the West Midlands. Across Britain, about 15 to 20 per cent of under-15s had been hit by the flu.

‘We have not got the pandemic we planned for,’ she said. ‘One way of describing it is we have been lobbed a softball. We should really focus on all the positives.  ‘We have been able to make a vaccine, we have been able to roll out the vaccine in a concerted and efficient manner. I think there’s a lot of positives about this.’

Half or more of all people with swine flu would have had no symptoms, HPA scientists claimed. ‘This is not to say this is not a real pandemic,’ insisted chief executive Justin McCracken, who claimed the government warnings had contained worst case scenario assumptions.