But, There Really Is a Pandemic? I Mean, It's Level 6: That Must Be Pretty Bad, Eh?
No, not really. Swine Flu is considered to be slightly less problematic than the usual flu.
The CDC collects cases confirmed and probable cases, with only a small number of them being confirmed. Due to a bit of country-level data without evidence of an actual Pandemic, the WHO declared a level 4 pandemic, 5 and then 6, which was declared on June 11, at which point the WHO and the CDC decided that data collection of individual confirmed and probable cases was no longer important in order to predict with certainty that "as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world population."1
On July 29, 2009, the Advisory Committee to the CDC on Immunization recommended that swine flu vaccine be given first to pregnant women, health care workers, and emergency medical responders, people caring for infants 6 months old or less, to young people from 6 months to 24 years old, and people aged 25 to 64 years who have medical conditions. Combined, these groups would equal approximately 159 million individuals.2
In Scotland, the collection of data was based on "confirmed cases" (lab testing), whereas in England it was based on "suspected cases" (no lab testing). On a per capita basis, there are 9.1 times more people in England with "suspected H1N1" flu than in Scotland.3
Notes:
1 World Health Organization as reported by the Western media, July 2009.
2 See Flu.gov: For Individuals & Families.
3 See The H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: Manipulating the Data to Justify a Worldwide Public Health Emergency by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, August 25th, 2009.