Fitness Club

Just one week after the spread of Influenza A (H1N1) -- commonly referred to as "swine flu" -- caused declarations of public health emergencies from the local to the international level, questions are arising as to whether public health authorities overreacted to the outbreak and inadvertently triggered unnecessary and harmful behaviors.

This developing debate is important, acknowledged David P. Fidler, the James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and author of Biosecurity in the Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health, and the Rule of Law.

However, people should be wary of simplistic hype about the "panic" public health responses to the outbreak have ostensibly caused, he cautioned.

"We have seen irrational responses to public health warnings about Influenza A (H1N1), whether we have the 'worried well' burdening emergency rooms or countries banning the importation of pork products from countries affected by the new virus," said Fidler.

"Some overreaction is anticipated and sometimes unavoidable when societies deal with serious infectious disease threats, because responses to such threats often occur in a context of great uncertainty, as has been the case with this new influenza virus," he observed.

"Unlike a hurricane or tornado, where the damage is geographically limited, readily observable, and regularly experienced, certain infectious diseases, particularly influenza, can appear unexpectedly and spread rapidly and silently across a community, a nation, and the planet before scientists and policy makers fully understand the threat," Fidler explained.

"Microbial threats often induce individual and collective fear, which makes promoting responses based on the best available science and public health principles difficult," he continued.

"However, compared to the climate experienced after the anthrax attacks in 2001 and the SARS outbreak in 2003, I am sensing much less panic and more prudence," noted Fidler, "which reflects, in part, the preparations made by governments at all levels for a potential pandemic of influenza. I will be relieved if, at the end of this outbreak, we are left debating whether public health responses were appropriate, rather than counting and mourning thousands killed by an influenza virus we did not fear enough."

Click here to read Fidler's analysis of the Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak and international law.