IT'S hard enough in these days of increasing official secrecy and political doublespeak for the ordinary person to recognise what is the truth and what is not. One has only to consider the claims and counter claims about the euro.

However, things are coming to a pretty pass when a simple issue of how many people have been stricken by a flu bug falls into this category. There can hardly be a person in Wharfedale, Aireborough or the rest of the country who, in the last four weeks, has not had the bug, has a relative suffering from it or knows someone who is also ill with the same symptoms. Certainly the Wharfedale Observer has had its fair share of victims in the office.

So, it is obvious that there is a flu epidemic. But no, wait a minute. Health chiefs firstly deny this, claiming that it cannot be officially classed as an epidemic because fewer than 400 people per 100,000 have the bug.

Next, in the wake of the news that pressure on NHS hospital beds has become almost intolerable, we have the Government's own Medical Officer, Professor Liam Johnson, contradicting the official health authority line by saying the country is in the grip of a 'serious epidemic'.

Finally, along comes another wave of 'experts' saying that there is no epidemic - only the Government claiming so to disguise the fact that the NHS is in a state of virtual collapse.

What is the ordinary person to believe? Certainly those who have been laid up with the bug, and those who have friends or relatives in the same boat, will believe there is indeed an epidemic. Add to this the fact that the 400 victims per 100,000 people yardstick is based on people actually going to the GPs, which makes it unreliable as a statistic anyway.

In fact, it is highly unlikely that anywhere near half of those afflicted will go to their GP, preferring instead to either try to work through it or take to their beds with a bottle of aspirin or other symptom reliever from the chemist.In which case, it doesn't need a Brain of Britain to come to the conclusion that, rather than simply base a judgment of the situation on GP visits, a far clearer picture could be obtained by talking to chemists. One pharmacist in this area said at the weekend that in his view, not only was there an epidemic, it had not yet peaked.

Once again, officialdom has failed to give a true picture to the populace at large. Once again, it is left to the public to guess at the truth. All we would say in this case is that if half the population around you seem to be falling down with flu symptoms, it is more than likely there is indeed an epidemic - whatever the official line!

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.