NEW YORK — At a hospital in New York's South Bronx, 187 children flooded the emergency room in a 12-hour period. Only two had flu-like symptoms, and those were mild. At a hospital in Queens, officials erected a tent outside to handle the crowd of visitors fearful of the H1N1 influenza virus, even though none had obvious symptoms.
They are part of what Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other city officials have dubbed the "worried well," whose epidemic of panic amid the swine flu outbreak is proving more problematic than the illness.
As of Wednesday afternoon, New York had one confirmed death from H1N1 -- that of a school administrator from Queens. Across the state, there have been 284 confirmed cases, with 201 of those in New York City.
The numbers, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are small in comparison with some other states: 553 in California, 794 in Illinois, 766 in Wisconsin and 556 (including three deaths) in Texas.
But in a teeming city where millions ride nose to nose in crowded subways, where people literally rub shoulders in bustling delis, corner markets and on the street, and where sneezing, coughing and spitting are as much a part of the background noise as the honking of taxicab horns, the idea of a potentially fatal virus on the loose is bound to spark fear.
The problem confronting city officials is how to quell that fear without seeming insensitive to normal parental concerns or out of touch with New Yorkers in the mainly working-class, immigrant-heavy communities that appear most worried.
One assemblyman on Wednesday compared the situation to the fear that gripped New York after the Sept. 11 attacks, and said it was the mayor's duty to do a better job of calming people.
Bloomberg's approach has been to deliver matter-of-fact flu updates -- heavy on practical advice about the virtues of hand-washing and covering the mouth while coughing, and light on fear-mongering.
A briefing Wednesday at City Hall was no different. The mayor began by announcing that a pair of local newspaper reporters had had a baby. He went on to discuss an upcoming fashion event aimed at stimulating the retail industry. Ninety minutes later, Bloomberg turned his attention to H1N1, focusing on the problems that city officials say are being created by the "worried well."
