Swine Flu? I Say Cinco De Mayo!May 05 '09 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line We live in a Chicken Little world fed by 'for profit' media, populated with people who elect leaders based on sound bites and photo ops. The headlines are filled with stories about the potential new pandemic. Stay tuned, don’t change that channel. This may kill you and your family if you don’t keep your TV, Radio, and Newspaper tuned to the latest bulletin or update. Close the schools, keep our kids safe. The CDC and brandy-spanking new Secretary for Health and Human Services say prepare for the worst. Or, wait, no, now they say it’s not really so bad after all. In fact it doesn’t have even close to the lethality of the 1918 influenza. That and we have far better medical care than was available then. Sure, it’s still a good idea to wash your hands frequently, just don’t go Howie Mandel OCD on us. Now the schools are about to reopen and several administrators appear to be working on career saving spin control. In Mexico City things are quieting down as the “Pandemic” seems to be fizzling out under common sense precautions. I guess the apocalypse will have to wait until 2012. In the mean time the news media milks every new case for all its worth and the American public, acting more like denizens of the third world, latch on to the story as they did the Y2K scare and SARS. Just like in the days of SARS they connect dots that don’t exist and assume pork is the root of all evil. As with SARS they avoid ethnic restaurants potentially housing disease carriers, in this case Mexican. All the Asian restaurant owners who lost business during the SARS scare must now be laughing. Well tonight I took my vulnerable seven year old to my favorite local Mexican taqueria serving the local Mexican population and ordered up a nice selection of carnitas (pork tips), tortillas, guacamole, and enchiladas. Yes, I ate pork from a Mexican restaurant frequented by Mexican people, some of whom may have recently been in Mexico. Ooooooh! Quick, call the CDC, put a tent over my house, I must be facing immanent death! Or, I could just be shaking my head at my fellow Americans who are so damn quick to gobble up the latest scare mongering pabulum shoveled down their throats by the news media whose only goal is to maintain enough viewership to justify their continuance. Thank God for Google News and its ability to pull from hundreds of news sources, thus increasing the likelihood I might just hit upon that rare source of true journalism that exists only in life support mode. I hear a news report that some pig farmers are expecting losses in the hundreds of thousands due to the swine flu ‘pandemic’ and think to myself “how can this happen?” Then I take a look at our elected officials, our most popular TV shows, and the short term memory loss most of our fellow Americans seem to have regarding news stories that matter, and I realize, in the inimitable words of Roger Waters, it all makes perfect sense. Fannie May, Freddie Mac, AIG? Who created this mess we all whine about on a daily basis? I dunno, I’m out to buy a surgical mask. Some days the only thing that causes me not to pray to God for a ‘do over’ for the human race is a look at my son’s face. Oh well, maybe to tomorrow will be better. Yeah, and maybe I’ll win the powerball jackpot without buying a ticket. Sorry for the rant. I probably should stop watching network news and cancel my newspaper subscription. At least I know most people here on Eps get it. And by that I don’t mean my silly rant but the silliness going on around us. And before you leave a comment thinking I’m blowing off this current strain of flu, I’m not. I don’t wish it on anyone and hope those with compromised immune systems and young children take precautions. But let’s not make more of this than needs be made. Be as careful as you would during any other flu season, and if you normally aren’t, well now is a good time to start. But don’t go overboard and throw out the bacon because your cousin Larry told you his friend Paul said some guy named Bubba told him you can get swine flu from pigs.  |
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