Middle-Aged Iowa Man Dies From Case Of Flu

The Iowa Department of Public Health announced the first flu death of the season for the state. The health department believes this to be the perfect opportunity to remind people to get their flu shot, however, they aren’t saying the flu shot status of the man who passed.

The man is said to have been between the ages of 41 and 60. Additionally, he had “underlying conditions or contributing factors” that likely contributed to his death. This leads us to ask what really did cause the man’s death.

The stark contrast in journalistic approach to reporting vaccine statuses in the event someone falls ill or passes away is largely confusing, controversial, and potentially riddled with agenda pushing. For example, yesterday, CBS’s Albany New York affiliate ran a story on a toddler contracting measles. The headline was “unvaccinated toddler” confirmed to have measles. But in the Iowa case, the reporter leaves the status out. Additionally, all too common, the reporter leaves out what would seem to be essential details regarding what the “underlying conditions or contributing factors” are.

“Any death is really terrible,” said Dr. Caitlin Pedati, IDPH medical director, to the Muscatine Journal. “It’s an unfortunate reminder that the illness can kill people.”

Numbers of flu deaths for the state of Iowa are down (so far) this year. Last year, there were a total of 272 death. By this time last year, there had already been six.