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thursday, 04.09. 20
Swine flu vs. COVID-19: How do they compare?
JOHN MCGOWAN reporter
The last major pandemic the world faced was in 2009 with swine flu, caused by the H1N1 virus. Comparing that outbreak to the one we are currently experiencing, it’s clear which has had the bigger impact. In the year that swine flu was a pandemic, it infected 60,800,000 people and killed 12,469 people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of April 8, the U.S. is at 12,754 deaths from COVID-19. According to Medical Chief for SIUE Health Service Kelly Farroll, the two viruses are similar in that they were both classified as novel and had not previously been identified in animals or people. This meant the world population had no immunity to the viruses at the beginning of each outbreak. The exception in the case of H1N1 was some elderly people who had been exposed to small swine flu outbreaks in the past, leaving them immune. Farroll said the viruses differ in their treatability and in who they affect most. “We had antiviral medication that would still be effective for the new strain [swine flu], so that probably helped to control the illness a little more. Whereas for COVID-19 right now, there are no medications to treat it and nobody has any immunity to it,” Farroll said. “Influenza’s effects on the young population were much more significant than the coronavirus.” Universities did not react to swine flu the way they are reacting now. Because of the treatability of swine flu, they stayed mostly business as usual. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple said he SAFETY I COVER
Evergreen Hall and Cougar Village. Vice Chancellor for Administration Rich Walker said the university has a quarantine facility set up with four apartments in a couple of separate buildings in Cougar Village. “We have a quarantine facility set up in Cougar Village that they [an infected student] could go to,” Walker said. “That is, to isolate them in case they wanted to or needed to stay in Cougar Village. Of course, if they had any roommates we would follow up with their roommates to see about taking the proper precautions for cleaning and sanitizing the apartment and watching them to make sure that they don’t become symptomatic.” Director of Health Services Riane Greenwalt said local students should call them if they believe they may have become infected so they can report it to the Madison County Health Department and work with them to notify those they have been in contact with. “If someone thought they had contracted it, we would want them to call us so that we could give them medical attention,” Greenwalt said. “Students would have to be tested in order to know that they were positive and because they are HANDS-ON I COVER
we are asking our communities to do the same,” Niles said. “COVID-19 is a dangerous virus that continues to mutate. Instead of going to work in fear, I’m going to work feeling lucky to have this experience to be at the front line and to work toward what I want to do for the rest of my life.” Many hospitals have implemented new care standards and procedures due to the pandemic. Senior nursing student Alex Watson, of Edwardsville, said the
Facts of H1N1 - Within one year, the H1N1 pandemic resulted in 60.8 million U.S. cases, 12,469 U.S. deaths and between 151,700-575,400 deaths worldwide. covered in April 2009 in California. - It primarily affected children and young to middle-aged adults.
Commonalities - Both were declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. - Both spread through droplets expelled when an infected individual coughed or sneezed. - Fever and cough are common symptoms of both.
- The most common symptoms were fever, cough and sore throat.
Facts of COVID-19 - So far, there have been 395,011 U.S. cases, 12,754 U.S. deaths and 79,235 deaths worldwide. - Outbreak originated in December in Wuhan, Chi reported on Jan. 20 in the state of Washington. - It primarily affects mem bers of the elderly commu nity. - The most common symp toms are fever, tiredness and dry cough.
Information retrieved from the CDC. COVID-19 numbers last updated April 8.
| Summer Bradley / The Alestle
was working at Northern Kentucky University during the H1N1 outbreak, and the campus didn’t shut down. “It wasn’t a shutdown like what’s happening now … It just wasn’t as rapidly spreading,” Waple said. Director of Health Service Riane Greenwalt said the extent of SIUE’s reaction to swine flu came down to more sanitization. “When we were dealing with H1N1, it did give us a chance to talk to other units at the university to increase their cleaning schedules, and making sure that computer labs were wiped down, that door knobs were wiped down,” Greenwalt said. “Ob-
viously, having people now online rather than on ground [means extra sanitization is] not as necessary.” As Greenwalt mentioned, the university’s responses to the two viruses aren’t really comparable, as the campus shut down in the case of coronavirus rather than just taking small precautions as they did for swine flu. Waple said when the school started looking into COVID-19, they had to change the policies that were put into place for swine flu. “I remember H1N1 policies for pandemics, and we pulled those up as we were
in Madison County – and it’s a communicable disease, which means it’s reportable ... So, it wouldn’t matter if they were in Cougar or if they were in an apartment or if they were at home, it’s the same protocol. People get tested, and if it’s positive then the public health department tells you what your contacts are and then takes it from there.” If a student residing on campus tests positive, the university would be able to go into their apartment or dorm to sanitize it after moving them to one of the quarantine apartments. Regardless of where a sick student is residing, Walker said the university still wants to help them in whatever way they can. “If a student were off campus and were to become infected, essentially we would follow the same principles. However we wouldn’t be able to go into someone’s private residence obviously,” Walker said. “We would still want to care for that student to the best that we can, protecting their privacy of course. If there’s a way that we can help them get prescriptions or food we want to be able to help them in that way as well even if they’re off campus.” The Alestle will continue to update as more COVID-19 news develops.
events online.” The newest thing VisitDays added to Brooks said that the biggest difference the virtual tours was breakout sessions, from the virtual tours they had before and according to Klingbeil. The breakout sesthe new components, are the option to sions allow the university to jump between have one-on-one sessions with student am- individual and group meetings for the stubassadors through Zoom. These will take dents taking these online tours. This means students can begin with a guided tour, and place Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. She said the week of March 30, the then move onto the individual meetings Department of Admissions sent out emails with admissions counselors and student to prospective students with information ambassadors. Klingbeil said that he and the team on how to register for the chat and presentations. These tours are available for high made an effort to stay in the background and allow the school students university to and transfer stu“With everything with market themdents alike. selves with their The comCOVID-19, we’ve had own branding, pany VisitDays to figure out very quickly making them the teamed up with focus. Zoom and the how to make sure “From the university to institution standwork out how that students can point, with the to best move the both interact online with visit days, most tours online. of, if not all stuVisitDays the university itself and dents don’t know Director of Dighave that same very who we are,” ital Marketing Klingbeil said. Matthew Klingpersonalized experience “That’s kinda the beil said he and point. The point his team had to digitally. is for us to live in make these deMATTHEW KLINGBEIL the background cisions quickly director of digital marketing so that the instito make sure the for VisitDays tution has their university tours full branding and could be fully their full marketfunctional and ing capabilities.” easily accessible For more information about SIUE online. “With everything with COVID-19, virtual tours, go to the SIUE Visit website we’ve had to figure out very quickly how and join in any of the virtual tours taking to make sure that students can both inter- place at 3 p.m. every Monday through act online with the university itself and Friday. have that same very personalized experience digitally,” Klingbeil said. “The first DAMIAN MORRIS thing we did is we worked with Zoom to 650-3527 @damian_alestle figure out a way to make sure that all of dmorris@alestlelive.com our current clients can get their in-person
health care shortage impacts these standards. “The amount of resources [COVID-19] takes up is unlike other illnesses,” Watson said. “It requires a 1-1 nurse to patient ratio, same as that in an intensive care unit. It requires a team of respiratory therapists and doctors just for a single patient. It sounds manageable, but remember we are in a healthcare shortage.” For more information and daily updates about the spread of the virus in the U.S., visit the CDC’s website.
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entering this pandemic, and a lot of things had to be updated institutionally,” Waple said. “Some of the plans worked, but this pandemic is spreading so rapidly — much faster.” SIUE continues to send out coronavirus updates to students via their school emails. As always, The Alestle will continue to provide updates as new information arises. JOHN MCGOWAN 650-3527 @john_alestle jmcgowan@alestlelive.com
