Swine Flu, pt. II

Daniel Taylor beat me to it, so here’s part 2.

Without hesitation, America has shifted it’s intense sense of paranoia from being focused on terrorism, the economy and the other 1 billion forms of metaphorical AIDS that’s looming over our heads to yet another pointless fear: the swine flu. Just like SARS, the West Nile virus and the avian flu before it, swine flu fever (pun!) is sweeping the news. Reports are coming in stating that we’re mere ‘steps’ away from this being declared a pandemic; as if there was actually a latter we can watch the disease climb up until it reaches the top, which then would of course trigger the Air Force or some shit to come in and quarantine all of the western states.

Edit: Just a bit ago, I saw that as of today, the Wold Health Organization has declared it a pandemic.

Unfortunately, we can’t overlook the truth that is underlying everything: there has been about 350 confirmed cases in this country, a confirmed death and a suspected 150 dead in Mexico City alone. Although we tend to shit bricks every chance we get over the most meaningless things, we might actually be in the right to get scared about this one.  Minus the fact that we’re an advanced nation, we have a health care system that’s going to leave a ton of people in the cold if this thing turns super contagious. On the bright side, it’s not too likely that they’ll be the ones hitting the clinics, considering the majority of the infections are based around people that live in or have recently been to Mexico.  Lets check out the chart below for some symptoms.

The whole conundrum of this whole ordeal is that if you check out the symptoms, they’re pretty much identical to a normal flu.  Considering about 1/2 the people I come in contact with (myself included) have some degree of those signs, I’m pretty much banking on the fact that someone I know is going to die soon.
So what are we to do?  Sit back and let this shit bowl over our lives?  YES.  I’m over it at this point.  For all we know, this is just a plague sent from above to kill off all those sub-prime mortgage lenders and corrupt investment bankers that destroyed this country… the rest of us are just collateral damage from the spoils of war.  Until the end hits us, why don’t you go play Pandemic 2.

Tags: 1 billion, bricks, conundrum, health care system, health organization, hesitation, intense sense, Mexico City, news reports, ordeal, pandemic, paranoia, plague, pun, sars, swine flu, west nile virus, western states