Swine flu Hysteria
by Tim Faircloth on Apr 30, 2009, 4:05 pm
I’m alive! Sorry for the blackout, folks. School is a harsh mistress.
Unless you’ve been living on a desert island for the past week, most likely you’ve heard about the latest horrible disease that’s going to kill us all — swine flue (aka Influenza A H1N1). According to the World Health Organization’s latest (…as of this publish date) update, more than 250 confirmed infections have been reported, with at least 8 deaths (one of which has occurred in the USA).
OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE! WHERE’S MY BIO-HAZARD SUIT?!
But wait, don’t tens of thousands of people die every year from seasonal influenza? Don’t hundreds of millions of people get infected every year?
Yes. That’s true. In fact, the WHO says that Swine flu isn’t really that bad. Yes, it may be considered a pandemic (which means “spread across more than one country”), but it’s not a cold, hard killer. Not yet at least.
So please, people, go on about your lives.
