Come on people

I must first apologize, this is going to be a pure and dirty old-school rant. There will be no links citing my sources, no pictures, often times there will be no punctuation or grammar. Here we go.

This swine flu "epidemic" has gone far enough. The fact that it is one step away from being listed as a pandemic is absurd. Only about 300 people have died world-wide from it. More people have died from any combination of car accidents, heart attacks, civil wars, the common human flu, etc. This is nothing to freak out about. Being clean and eating healthy is a good thing, but let's be serious about it. IF what we get from all this is a world in which people are more concerned about cleanliness and hygiene, that is a good thing, but if what we get is a world afraid to go out in public and wear gloves and mask all day, that is absurd and sad.

Last year 35,000 people IN AMERICA died from the common human flu, that's 100 a day. So far the "swine flu" has only "killed" one. I put killed in quotes, because this person was a small child, and did not get any treatment. Mexico has reported almost 100 cases of death. First off, it is Mexico, so come on. Plus now I have been reading that only less than 10 of those cases have been confirmed as swine, the others may have been the common flu.

Also, this is not an airborn-toxin (side note the band Airborne Toxic Event may be the best new band last year.) so we do not have to worry about breathing this in. (As another side note, when I got the video linked above from youtube, all 9 featured videos on the main page were about swine flu. Sad) You get the flu like you would the normal flu, by coughing or breathing on each other or sharing anything that goes into your mouth (use your imagination here). The news last night told me that most area stores were sold out of those mouth masks that are used for painting. All this will do is make you look stupid. If it were airborne, this would do nothing. If these did stop airborne toxins you would see the military wearing these instead of their gas masks that cost millions of dollars. I actually saw people walking around the streets were plastic gloves and masks, I am not kidding, I wish I were. I also saw people just covering their mouths with their forearms. Now this is the definition of idiotic. That would do nothing.

Our nurse at our school put it best in an e-mail. She said you are actually more likely to get the regular human flu. We should be worried about that. She said she will not spread the fear by handing out gloves, masks, or other things. If you are sick, go home and get better. Yes, swine flu is real, and if you get it, take care of yourself and get back to living your life. Do not live in fear. Wash your hands, do not cough on others, and cover yourself when you sneeze. Nothing new.

One last rant. One I got to work, the lady across the hall from me told me that we'd better wipe down the desks after each class. I told her that this is probably not necessary. She then went on to say that is likely that we have someone who might have the swine flu. She said "two of my students said they went to Texas over Spring BReak." I didn't even know what to say to this. In her logic everyone that steps into Texas (even over 3 weeks ago) has the swine flu. She then said "I have a soar throat, do you." Wow.

The end is near...........

So I figured I would be doing all of my loyal viewers an injustice if I did not comment on this swine flu "outbreak." First of, why is everyone panicking? There have been literally a handful (40) of reported cases in the U.S., even Mexico (who has the most cases) does not have many.

I once watched a 20/20 story about perceptions of fear. For example when the bird flu was the big scare, everyone was running to the doctor to get the bird flu shot, no one was actually worried about the normal flu shot. Less than ten people died from bird flu, whereas thousands die from the normal flu. Heart disease is the number one killer, yet people eat whatever the hell they want, and weigh 300 plus pounds (see my ex-wife). They asked parents if they would rather have the child go play at a house with a gun or a house with a pool. Everyone picked the gun. The numbers show less than a hundred children are killed by an accidental gun shot, and over 400 children drown in a pool every year. It's all because of media perception. The media shows all the plane accidents and not the thousands of car accidents; so people are afraid of airplanes but still drive like an idiot. That is the same thing that is happening here with the swine flu. Here is what happened in the 1970s when people were worried about the swine flu.

Editor's note: There is a chance I am wrong and this blows up into a world epidemic and we start to live like in The Stand or I am Legend. If this is what happens, I will stand corrected.