Swine flu

Remarkably, I seem to be in the 99.99% of the global population without swine flu, although as far as the media seems to be concerned, if you're still alive to read/watch their updates you should count yourself lucky. Perhaps the most wrongly amusing story related to this so far is the fact that Egypt's culling 300,000 pigs, despite the fact that there's absolutely no scientific reason to, especially since at last count they didn't even have anyone infected! Even the UN's said they don't have to, and yet Egypt seems to be playing the part of a small child with their fingers in their ears chanting "la la la".

It may be a general aversion to pork, or an overreaction because when it came to bird flu, which they actually were affected by, they were slow to react and they had a few deaths. Still, it's enjoyably typical of everything surrounding this story, including recent reports of hospitals being overwhelmed by the "walking well", who have a bit of a sniffle and are suddenly convinced it's swine flu. That's even before you take into account the fact that apart from the initial wave of infections in Mexico, which was initially blamed for about 150 deaths, subsequently revised down to...7, everyone infected feel a bit crap for a few days then gets better.

Sigh. I swear that the world's filled with people who believe the first thing they read and never think to question it or seek out more information before blindly reacting. Yes, swine flu was/is a bigger threat than bird flu or any number of other half-arsed doom-laden scenarios the media frequently brings up, being an actual virus, actually transmitting from person to person. However, that doesn't mean you should immediately panic and run around like a headless chicken. Or perhaps more accurately, headless pig. That's a simile which for some reason seems more unpleasant - ultimately they're both decapitated animals, so the fun factor's limited. Unless you're into that sort of thing. Freak.

Update: I'd be remiss if I didn't modify this. Turns out the 1918 flu pandemic started with very mild symptoms, then 4 months later kicked into gear and killed 50 million people. So yeah, overreactions at the moment are ridiculous, but you never know, it may yet kill us all.