Birds and Swines and Humans. Oh my!
Its been, what, a week now? And I am sooo tired of hearing about Swine Flu. Friday at work we got our big swine flu warning and protocol. Yeah, the swine flu is a nasty thing, but guess what, there's not a damn thing we can do about it. Just like any other virus, it takes a little common sense to avoid getting sick...wash your fucking hands, don't touch your face all day, and if you ARE sick, stay the fuck home!!! And STOP FREAKING OUT. Not everyone who gets swine flu is going to die. Only one American (as of Friday) has died from it. And furthermore, thousands of people die every year from the regular flu as well. Guess what people, disease is natural. Without it the world would be even more overpopulated than it already is. We need diseases. I of course do not wish death via swine flu upon anyone, but is there really a need for people to shut down living their lives because of the fear they might get it? Will you even know if you have the swine flu?
I think the media is the main culprit of this intense, wide-spread fear. I was watching the Ellen show last week when the local news broke into a special on swine flu in Maine (3 cases so far). I thought it would be a 5 minute blip. It was 30 minutes! I never saw the rest of Ellen. That was 30 minutes of spreading fear amongst the local population. Out of curiosity I looked up the word "pandemic" on Dictionary.com since thats the word they are throwing out right now. It is defined there as "prevalent throughout and entire country, continent, or the world." Well, what does prevalent mean? One case? Ten cases? A thousand? Hard to say. What I then noticed really put me over the edge. The website has sponsors that pay for the bandwidth, etc... The sponsors for the word "pandemic" are two companies that sell, very specifically, swine flu masks. Wow, talk about targeting the already fearful.
Last week we had a student who presented with fever, runny nose, and sore throat. Oh my God, those are the symptoms of swine flu! AND she was from Maine! I think we're all in danger now! As a complete germaphobe I should be one of those people freaking out. But I'm not. I don't want to get it. I don't want to get anything for that matter. But if I do, panicking will not help me... RELAX everyone. And THINK before you react.
I think the media is the main culprit of this intense, wide-spread fear. I was watching the Ellen show last week when the local news broke into a special on swine flu in Maine (3 cases so far). I thought it would be a 5 minute blip. It was 30 minutes! I never saw the rest of Ellen. That was 30 minutes of spreading fear amongst the local population. Out of curiosity I looked up the word "pandemic" on Dictionary.com since thats the word they are throwing out right now. It is defined there as "prevalent throughout and entire country, continent, or the world." Well, what does prevalent mean? One case? Ten cases? A thousand? Hard to say. What I then noticed really put me over the edge. The website has sponsors that pay for the bandwidth, etc... The sponsors for the word "pandemic" are two companies that sell, very specifically, swine flu masks. Wow, talk about targeting the already fearful.
Last week we had a student who presented with fever, runny nose, and sore throat. Oh my God, those are the symptoms of swine flu! AND she was from Maine! I think we're all in danger now! As a complete germaphobe I should be one of those people freaking out. But I'm not. I don't want to get it. I don't want to get anything for that matter. But if I do, panicking will not help me... RELAX everyone. And THINK before you react.