ATTN Swine Flu Panickers:

[schmevil]

STOP. Panicking over a generalized, non-imminent is less than useless. It's ridiculous, counter productive, and only leads to a bad situation becoming much worse.

Also, the first person to cast aspersions on 'those people' will be first against the wall. FYI.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to block out the thundering idiocy of the human race for a few, while I finish this damn book, and write a presentation.

Comments

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

Can we at least cast aspersions on "those people" where "those people"="idiots who don't wash their hands"?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yes. Aspersions must be cast!

[bobthetrout.livejournal.com]

Even if we DO manage to get a pandemic (which is unlikely given SARS and Bird Flu) it's highly unlikely to wipe out humanity the way everyone seems to be thinking. Sometimes I hate the information age, it seems to spread panic.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I saw a post on friendsfriends that amounted to: "THE PANDEMIC IS HERE! THE PANDEMIC IS HERE!" I facepalmed so hard over that one. It's almost as though while I'm reading a sensible, informative article about the possibility of this becoming a pandemic, and what one should do to prepare for that event, they're reading The Stand.

I hate the information age, it seems to spread panic.

Presentation has a lot to do with it. So much 'news' is really fear-mongering.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

THOSE FILTHY MEXICANS DID IT

And I started it all. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH

[outlawpoet.livejournal.com]

Kids In The Hall - The Cause of Cancer (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21768491)

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

I just figured you blew it over this way with your collection of CPU fans.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Every time I cross over to the US, I cough at the border patrol.

Soon, we will be able to take over the southwest again! The cops will be sick and WE WILL TAKE OVER!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

It'll be just like when we all died from Bird Flu.

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

I have actually seen at least one person literally compare it to the Stand. Because nothing says "genetically engineered pandemic that wipes out civilization as we know it" like "two dozen kids from Queens caught the flu over spring break. They're all fine now." One thing people forget about the 1918 flu is that it didn't just have an abmorally high mortality rate -- it also had what's estimated to be a 50% infection rate. It spread incredibly fast, and one of the reasons that millions of people died is that almost 20% of the worlds population was infected (also, there were no antibiotics to treat secondary infections then -- the flu pandemics in the 50s and 60s had a fraction of the mortality rate the 1918 pandemic did).

If people really want a terrifying potential pandemic to panic over, they ought to goolge antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis (or, preferably, not google it). Blaming the communists for being a threat to civilization as we know it instead of Mexico might not be quite as much fun, but hey, at least there's still a country they can accusingly point fingers at and warn people not to visit.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Quit it with your logic and historical contextualizing. These things have no place in PANDEMICS.

I actually think that people do want something, not necessarily a pandemic, but a phenomenon to panic over. Mass panic is a great way to define and redefine boundaries. It's disruptive. Kind of a radical, cathartic defense of the established order.

I need to think on this...

[sandoz-iscariot.livejournal.com]

I can't wait for the inevitable Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie about diseased man-eating pigs.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

I... I think it's already been done...

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

What I like best are the people who are all "zomg don't eat pork!"

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

If you eat pork you will catch it! Because flu is the same thing as mad cow disease!

[bienegold.livejournal.com]

More cheap bacon for me!