Putting H1N1 into perspective

For the first time in several days, this morning's New York Times had no story about H1N1 on the front page. However, inside there's an interesting piece by Jim Dwyer that puts H1N1 influenza into perspective from a public health standpoint. According to the CDC website, we have now had 160 confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza with 1 death in the US. While this is an important health problem, Dwyer's column notes that there have been 14 shooting deaths in schools since August, and 13,000 people have died from seasonal influenza this year. Although Mexico has had 25 deaths from the new flu, last year there were 6,000 deaths related to drug violence.