Let's Talk About Swine Flu!

Ah, swine flu.

Never has a disease caused such wide spread panic since SARS....wait, wasn't that one supposed to kill everyone too? And what's that you say? It didn't? Hm. Interesting.

I love how the media along with certain politicians are causing such a hype about Swine Flu when a) it has hit us before, under the Ford Administration, not Carter as some misinformed/uneducated conservatives would have you believe. b) there are worse things out there right now that have been killing people since the 80s and they STILL don't get the media attention they deserve. and c) is the effing flu!

I'm going to skip going into detail about A, since it is pretty self explanatory. For more details, just google Michelle Bachman and Swine Flu. It's quite interesting....her stupidity, that is.

Moving on! Lets just lay down some swiney numbers for a second:

• 279 "confirmed" cases in the US (New York Times)
  
• 1 death (by the way, the one boy who died was FROM Mexico, visiting Texas...so technically no US citizens have died yet.) (NY Times)
  
• 659 "confirmed" cases worldwide (CNN)
  
• 25 deaths in Mexico (NY Times)
  
• That's it.

Now that we are all straight about the numbers, we can move on.

For starters, what about the FLU flu!? You know, the human kind? The one that grubby little kids pass through their classrooms because their parents send them to school anyway? Yea, that's the one. Since no one is panicking about that strain of flu, think about this for a second: 36 thousand, yes THOUSAND, people died each year from general, human influenza. And Lord only knows how many little kindergartners have it right now. You know what kills more people that the flu? Obesity. Yes, obesity is more deadly that almost any illness. It is estimated that last year there were 112,000 obesity related deaths. See, this is why I don't eat fast food, I walk to the grocery store, and so help me God I will NEVER go around Wal*Mart on a scooter because it too hard to walk. SO HELP ME GOD! The US is the fattest country in the world. But you know what...if we let Texas leave, I bet we would drop a hefty number of those extra pounds. But that is a side story. *See previous blog*

But you know what kills more people that obesity, any kind of flu and murder combined? AIDS! Nobody mentions AIDS anymore! Let's visit those numbers!

• 33 million CONFIRMED cases of HIV/AIDS
• 2 million of those cases are Children
• 2.7 million of those cases are NEW
• 2 million deaths per year

*www.avert.org*

Someone today made the mistake of trying to tell me that Swine flu was as bad as/potentially worse than AIDS. Let me tell you, I went off! How DARE anyone say such a thing! Until you know someone who has been infected with and DIED from AIDS, don't you dare say some pig flu is worse, in numbers or in suffering.

Realistically, although this particular strain of Swine Flu is currently worse than the general flu strain, it isn't in the long run. Once the strain and point of mutation have been isolated, a vaccine is not far. That much is certain. And again, let me remind you; we had SARS and we lived through it. We had the Bird Flu, we lived through that too. We had the Swine Flu once already, and we are still here. So let's stop panicing, take off the masks, and remember to wash our hands, and not to put our fingers up our noses or in our mouths.

I would like to close with this:
"200 people get Swine Flu and everyone wants to wear a mask. Millions of people die from AIDS and nobody wants to wear a condom."