"Swine flu is a distraction for something" and other words of wisdom

It was a regular Saturday a couple of weeks ago — I was sitting in my class like usual, wishing I were outside and enjoying the DC springtime, when I felt my phone vibrate, meaning I was receiving a text message. Trying not be noticed, I snuck my phone out of my pocket to read the message. "Do you want to go see Lady Sovereign tonight? I can get tickets," it said. For those of you that don’t know, Lady Sovereign is a British hip-hop artist that has enjoyed some commercial success here in the States. She’s not especially political, as far as I can tell, and her lyrics don’t seem to be very profound. (For all the die-hard Lady Sovereign fans reading this, I admittedly don’t know her music very well, nor is this the point of this posting.) At any rate, for once I didn’t have class the next day and was looking forward to a night out, so I said that yes, I’d love to go. Tickets to the show were bought, and the evening proceeded from there. The show was fun but eventful, pretty much what you would expect from a late show with a pop performer who’s music you aren’t in love with. The most memorable moment in the evening, for me, came at the beginning of the show. Lady Sovereign got on stage and bent down to touch the hands of the fans in the front row that were reaching up to her. As she did, she kept repeating in a playful tone "swine flu, swine flu, love it, gotta have it." Afterward, without skipping a beat or stopping to explain, she said "all this swine flu stuff is a distraction for something. I don’t know for what, but it’s definitely a distraction." That got me thinking… Certainly, the media has made every attempt to create widespread panic in regards to the swine flu, but is it really a distraction? And what could it be a distraction for? The answer is, well, a lot of things. The war in Iraq continues now in its sixth year. More troops are heading into Afghanistan every day, and the economy is not looking any better. I could go on and on, but I’m really not a pessimist, and you already know the drill right? Things are hard, and people are struggling both at home and abroad. Confidence in the current system is shaky, and those in positions of power are worried. And if they’re not, they should be. Now let’s take a brief look at "swine influenza" (or the H1N1 virus, for those in the know). This time around is not the first swine flu scare. Another swine flu scare occurred in 1976 — reportedly, only one person died from the flu itself, but 30 people died after receiving a poorly-tested immunization shot that was widely distributed to the public. The overly-quick response time with getting the vaccine out was in part due to then-President Gerald Ford wanting to ensure a win in the upcoming election, and also by the broad community of physicians, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and other health agencies not wanting to be seen as incompetent should the flu turn especially deadly. The swine flu epidemic of 1976 never came, and public confidence was lost anyway due to the lethal consequences of an untested vaccine. And our current swine flu situation? Per the CDC, the fifth swine flu-related U.S. death occurred yesterday, May 18th, and more than 5,000 cases have been reported in the United States. In my opinion, the headlines continue to be sensational, linking this swine flu outbreak to the epidemic flu of 1918. While 5,000 cases surely would make one uneasy, especially as more deaths are being reported, let’s put it into context. Every year, more than 2,000 people die from the common seasonal flu in New York City alone. So, is Lady Sovereign right? Is the swine flu pandemic scare just a part of a large-scale, multi-government conspiracy to keep the people in line? My conclusion is no, at least not totally. There are certainly things that world leaders would rather have us thinking about, but I do believe that health officials were afraid that things were going to get out of control (and nothing makes people lose faith in institutions more than that). The media has taken the story and ran with it, sensationalizing a potential tragedy and making people afraid. Health officials want to both cover their bases and assure the public that they’re on top of the situation. And if that gets our minds off of the current events that would make us want to work for real, systemic, domestic change, well that’s just an added bonus. Brie Phillips is just finishing two years of service as a Freeman Fellow with the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Nonviolent Youth Collective. She has been an organizer and facilitator for several FOR Peacemaker Training Institutes, and worked with youth and young adult activists throughout North America. Brie’s also worked as an organizer with the Student/Farmworker Alliance, and is pursuing graduate studies in public health.