Brief Thoughts On Swine Flu
You have to be pretty well insulated from the rest of the world to have not heard about Swine Flu…over and over and over again.
The word “pandemic” has been bandied about, schools have been shut down, some states have canceled all high school sporting events, Joe Biden is telling people not to get on airplanes—is it possible we’re overreacting a little bit?
For all of the talk and panic, do you realize that, worldwide, only 13 people have died? Now don’t get me wrong, every is valuable, and the deaths of those 13 people are a tragedy, but should we all be freaking out about this considering that the regular version flu (the one that we’re not worried about) kills 20,000 people a year in the United States alone?
It seems to me that, theoretically, this could turn out to be a huge deal, but it will have to get exponentially worse before it is.
Surely that realization will prevent the panic-mongering of the media (and even our VP), right?
When pigs fly.
The word “pandemic” has been bandied about, schools have been shut down, some states have canceled all high school sporting events, Joe Biden is telling people not to get on airplanes—is it possible we’re overreacting a little bit?
For all of the talk and panic, do you realize that, worldwide, only 13 people have died? Now don’t get me wrong, every is valuable, and the deaths of those 13 people are a tragedy, but should we all be freaking out about this considering that the regular version flu (the one that we’re not worried about) kills 20,000 people a year in the United States alone?
It seems to me that, theoretically, this could turn out to be a huge deal, but it will have to get exponentially worse before it is.
Surely that realization will prevent the panic-mongering of the media (and even our VP), right?
When pigs fly.
7 comments:
I notice that no one is talking about Avian Flu anymore. Or anthrax, for that matter.
ha! when pigs fly...
funny.
I believe it should be referred to as H1N1
and yes all of this is pathetic
I thus far have had roughly 15 patients with the sniffles who have been convinced that they have swine flu.
Alex,
Or SARS, or West Nile Virus…
Yeah, I'm sure this will blow over eventually, only to be replaced by something else.
Justin,
My bad…"Swine Flu" has a much better sound to it though.
MrsD,
You should tell the next person that comes in that they do actually have swine flu, and then, when they start to freak out, say, “Just kidding!” and see what their reaction is.
It’s what Michael Scott would do.
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