[Jim Noble]

The swine flu has killed 5,000 over the last several months. It's far less deadly than the typical strain.

That's my impression, as well, but because of the unusual age distribution we really, really need case fatality rates to make a judgement.

Why CDC doesn't publish that data, 26 weeks into the event, is unclear.

[John W]

I don’t know if its really all that unclear. When a government agency doesn’t publish data that it could and should, what does that usually turn out to show us once we get the data?