If there's one group of people that's actually happy about the swine flu breakout, it's probably the US Government. For the first time in months, there's something that's freaking the American people out more than the economy. But like all things that are even remotely threatening to America, the whole swine flu thing has been blown ridiculously out of proportion. The national media has gone on another scare-the-crap-out-of-you mission and it's worked like a charm. And this is the way it always happens, whether it's swine flu, avian flu, or some-other-random-animal flu. To be fair, the paranoia has gone international as well. Egypt was so scared by swine flu that the government there ordered that all 300,000 pigs in the country be killed. Uh, that's straight up crazy.
What everyone is overlooking about this whole thing is that even if you get swine flu, you're more than likely going to be okay. If you think you have symptoms, you go to your doctor, and he or she will take care of you. Boom. No problem. You want to know why so many of the people in Mexico that caught swine flu died? It's because it's freaking MEXICO. Let's be real here: Mexico isn't exactly the cleanest country in the world. Have you ever been to Tijuana? And this is the same country whose soccer fans throw urine filled ziplock bags onto the field during matches. Furthermore, the people there don't have access to the greatest health care (but they do have ready access to illegal steroids). These elements don't play well for ANY sort of health concern. Now I know health care for a lot of Americans is a joke, but in the big picture, we're still better off than Mexico. And also, last time I checked, American fans weren't throwing pee-bags onto soccer fields (probably because no Americans actually watch soccer).
You might think I'm taking the situation too lightly. I'm just being straight with you -- there's really very little threat in this disease so let's all just calm it down. But that's not to say there aren't diseases out there that really do scare me. The one that scares me most? It's one that hasn't manifested yet, but we've all seen before: the disease that turns you into a zombie. If you've seen 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, I Am Legend, or any other zombie movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I was talking with Wiley about this and we agreed that this would probably be about the worst possible pandemic to strike the world. A breakout of a disease that turns people into the walking dead, and then causes them to want to eat the flesh of the living; THAT'S a virus I think we should be really worried about.
Anyway, the point in all this is that there's a lot worse things out there right now than some pig virus. Don't buy into the hype. Just wash your hands, don't hang around sick people, and if you do start getting sick, call a doctor. So basically, do what you should be doing all the time.
We're all going to be fine... at least until the zombie virus strikes. In the meantime, maybe we should warm up the Playstation again and sharpen our Resident Evil skills.
Lock and load.
dude. i died of laughter reading this. except for the death parts, of course... whether its bad healthcare or good healthcare, death is just so sad.
ReplyDeleteand i heart resident evil.. the movies... except the last one was kinda eh... but it's like cathartic. but i suck at the video games.