April 30, 2009
-
Panic Panic
The World Health Organization and various U.S. government spokespeople are emphatically and hurriedly informing journalists that the strain of influenza virus A H1N1 is NOT “swine flu” or “Mexican flu.”
Why would they be rushing to make this announcement and control the way the media refer to the coming pandemic? Why!? Because there are fools out there demanding closing borders, halting imports of pork, and/or destroying all the pigs.
And why would those fools be making such asinine demands? Beats me. Is some subversive element spreading disinformation? Are that many people really that ignorant and/or misinformed? Do people simply rush to demand that the government do SOMETHING, anything, even if it does no good?
Or all of the above?
For whatever reasons the fools are running in all directions shouting their addled heads off for a visible government response to protect them from the invisible menace, the government (and the United Nations) have heard them. What have they done? They have asked the media to spin the flu in a different direction.
The official panic over the popular panic is a valid response, probably the best one they could make, because the public’s panic over potential danger is more dangerous than the virus itself. It is fairly well established that A H1N1 is spread human-to-human. It will spread — that’s a given. Some of those with preexisting conditions or compromised immune systems are likely to die. The virus’s behavior thus far suggests that most healthy people will experience a mild infection with miserable symptoms, and survive.
This is just another epidemic, going on pandemic. The world has them, and always has. Some of them have changed the world. Wars have probably done more damage overall, but do people harangue their government to stay out of wars? Most don’t. They tend to spit on those who do.
I have an extremely compromised immune system and chronic respiratory disorders. I’m assuming I’ll get this flu. Though I don’t expect to die, I’m not assuming I’ll survive. I’ll deal with whatever comes when it comes. I love my life, but I’m not afraid to die. That attitude is a practical matter. I love life because I’m happy. If I went around scared to death of death, it would take all the pleasure out of life.
Comments (21)
I love your attitude!
brilliant post, of course. sensationalism always wins, though.
i’ve been wondering why there is this great over-reaction- yeah- it’s the flu- a bad case of it as well… is it as simple as changing the name? or is it this deeper fear about life in general right now?
I’ve always wondered what kind of reaction there’d be if there was an Ebola outbreak in this country. Of course Ebola isn’t that easy to get airborne as people think, but tell that to someone who finds out Ebola Zaire has a 90% mortality rate and the Mayinga strain even higher. It actually did get here in 1972 but nothing much happened because it’s not easy to get like the flu.
My son was told today that the common flu is more deadly and not to panic. I am glad they are doing that since they have 10 possible cases in a neighboring town here in DE. I made that kids wash their hands after coming home which I try and do anyway.
Funny one minute the government “needs to stay out of things” and then the next crisis “they need to Do something.” Poor government can’t win. But we are dealing with people here yep That is what the government is People trying to do a job for the people. I think “they” forget that part.
i hope you stay healthy!
i think what makes this ‘flu worrisome is that it’s so virulent. since it’s more transmissible, even if it’s “only” as lethal as an ordinary flu, it will still kill more people. it also seems to be killing atypical flu victims (at least in mexico) via cytokine reactions.
so! like i said, i hope you stay well. and if you don’t, i hope you hustle yourself down the hill and into a hospital, instead of waiting and worrying me sick like last time
<3,
michelle
The only reason they give a rats testicle about it is because it’s in their backyard now . . . instead of some third world country.
Guess the media forgot to mention the mice escaping from a lab in NJ that were infected with plague in 2005 we should all have died by now.http://www.physorg.com/news6533.html
We should have closed the borders on December 29, 1845 when the Republic of Texas became a State
I’m a little worried about getting it, becasue of the immuno-suppressives I’m on. But I’m more concerned about my daughter since she’s had mrsa for so long.
But, if it happens, it happens.
Mountains out of mole hills…
@Galileo7 - I was wondering the same thing and what with the blood squirting everywhere it would not be a pretty sight. I hope we can contain THIS virus asap.
The fear and the panic are worse…I think, and the media always overblows things. People have been dying from flu for years and years, hundreds of them, and more…..
I suppose it is the nature of the beast, or human nature, or whatever this crazy pattern is.
Seems like a lot of people don’t have the sense God gave a goose.
all i can ever think is “do we really lead such charmed lives that THIS is what we panic over?”
my most pressing concern re: swine flu is that closed borders will derail our honeymoon in montreal. stay sensible, canada!
and stay healthy, kathy!
Napoleons-in-train or NIT as in wits- demand blindly for something anything to be done and should this action fail to work as it often can, it isn’t their fault-these collective nitwits, as they didn’t direct anything….even better, should this fail-any this-it proves they’ve a measure of power and that is all that counts. egoic fulfilment. the results are always ultimately negative and thus destructive.
I wonder if I’m just turning into a know-it-all…lol….I’ve been afraid irrationally and then just angry…it can empower.
@jerjonji - ”…deeper fear…?” Good question — lots of people are worried about money and many equate money with survival.
@Galileo7 - I’ve thought about that, like what if ebola mutated into something airborne or with a common vector?? World-changing, indeed!
@Smarticus - It’s the cytokine cascade thing that worries me most, but more in connection with my son than for myself. He doesn’t get every little thing that comes around the way I do, and when he does get sick his immune system lays him flat, and miserable.
The family has discussed what we will do if I get it. We’ll wait and see. The hospital has hazards all its own for me, so I’m hesitant to go there. If I must get this thing, I hope I get it early, when I have a better chance of getting help if I need it.
@TommyCrowwithWhiteFeathers - Naaah, we should have closed the borders BEFORE Texas got in.
…but it could work out okay, anyway. I read that Texas might secede.
@mammaquiet - You got me with the “goose” thing. I laughed out loud and am still grinning. It was one of my mother’s favorite sayings.
@TheCrimsonNinja - I do hope this doesn’t interfere with your honeymoon in any way. That would be just too cruel.
I have mild COPD and a compromised immune system. I’m assuming I’ll probably get it, and I’m making some changes/preparations just in case I do die. Dying happens to us all, and I refuse to panic over it. I’m mildly anxious, but it’s the good kind that kicks my butt into gear so I leave no loose ends untied.
Today is for burning my old journals. That might sound foolish, but I don’t want to leave anything hurtful behind to be found by my beloved or my kids. I want those thoughts to go with me when I go.
I’m learning a lot from this experience. Like how to live like I’m dying. It’s something I thought I’d grasped, but when I think about all the things I’ve left undone (important letters, paperwork, etc.), I know that I have a lot more to learn.
beautiful attestation. I load up double heavy on fish oil, vitamin C, cod liver oil and I eat a grapefruit a day for these “pandemics”…it scares me that there is some sort of subversive element going on now to gain control of our food supply and where it comes from…I believe that this is more than Mexico..it is also some part of whatever food supplier is threatened and possible wants influence to control things…I cannot give much more speculation to it..having a rabbi friend and I discourse for days on the weakness of what evil is…if you give no thought to it, it cannot have enough power in and of itself to matter…freedom is just another word for no thing left to lose and I do so believe that there is something in the fear peddling that has allowed theives to already take more than we know or may see until it really shows when called upon later…
life is not insignificant, nor is its end…
Good post!
Well, I really don’t know how to respond to it all…I mean, I guess I am just not really that worried about it all…I do understand that our way of life is going to change…it will get worse before it gets better…been saying this since the whole crash of the economy…it’s kinda like a ripple effect…waves spread further and get bigger before they die… anyhow, to me it is just nature…and yes there will be death….still it is part of nature….with that said…the only thing i have left to say is just try to prepare for such and do whatever you can to overcome such a challenge in life….that is all we can ever do.
hugs to those out there who have huge fears!
I haven’t decided exactly how concerned to be about this, but then it hasn’t come overly close to us last I heard. My biggest concern of course is for my asthmatic son and 19 month old daughter. I supposed I should be concerned for my husband and myself too, but I can’t muster anything worth comparing to the kids. However, the way I see it is that those of us with extensive experience with respiratory issues are the ones best prepared to care for the people who get sick. More often than not, with whatever happens we’ve been there, done that.
I’ve had a thought… According to this article and others (Yahoo link here) this bug is hitting younger people harder than is typical. I wonder if it could be a strain that has gone around a time or two, and therefore the older generations have been exposed and built immunity? I mean, they can’t possibly have all the information on all the strains and mutations of the flu that have ever circulated, right?
@lupa - When I heard that healthy young people were getting the most severe immune reactions to this, the only answer that made sense is what you said: that older people already have some resistance to it. I had swine flu in the era before they could read its DNA. One day I was working in the hospital, the next I was a patient. Maybe I have a chance to beat this thing.
@sidhesays - A year and a half ago, when I got atypical fungal pneumonia first, then followed that up with the flu, and was quietly healing myself at home until a cold put me in the hospital, I looked around at all my “loose ends” and realized it was too late to get everything in order. The thought was liberating. I have no journals to burn. Most of my personal writing has been in letters, and who knows whether any given recipient kept or discarded them. I have no secrets, but do have enough vanity that I think I’ll dig out the porny photos and destroy them. Thanks for the reminder. I’m on it, right now.
@CastroCafe - Life with a capital L is significant. Extinction is significant. Individual lives and deaths have little meaning beyond being drops in the stream. I have come and gone so many times, in so many ways… it’s no big thing — at least, no bigger than, for example, moving to a new town, learning a new language, adjusting to any big change.
@SuSu - Damned interesting. And I hope you do!