Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Swine Flu Sheeple

I'll get back to my Africa travels soon but first I have to vent. I am so sick and tired of the stupidity of the American public when it comes to the swine flu. I understand it's a highly contagious illness but seriously, unless you have a pre-existing condition, you have a 99.9999999999% chance of getting better after a few days. People, it is NOT time to panic. If you get sick, keep your butt at home, push the fluids, eat chicken soup and veg for a few days. Unless you are in the high-risk category STAY HOME unless you start having trouble breathing, coughing up blood or spike a fever higher than 103 degrees. Then and ONLY THEN should you worry your doctor. Your doctor's office (and the ER) will be full of other people who are REALLY sick and the Tamiflu you get prescribed (if it's in stock) probably won't do more than cut your symptom by a day or two. Following your mom's age-old advice won't hurt either: cover your mouth when you cough, throw your tissues away and wash your hands (WITH SOAP PEOPLE). It's not rocket science.

This all reminds me of 2000-2001 when West Nile came on the scene. I was in MA working for a public health non-profit and I remember the "sky is falling" scenarios we ran into. The government actually had plans in place to convert hockey rinks to mass morgues. What happened then...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Several people got sick, a few people died and the world moved on to the next health "crisis." Guess what? Random people die from seemingly new and novel illnesses every day. It's part of the way God designed things.

I think my mom probably has it right...it's all a ploy to make people believe in Obamacare. Rohm Emmanuel has never met a crisis he didn't love. Stupid sheep!

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