Ben Goldacre of the excellent Bad Scienceblog has an interesting take on the “Oh, it’s all a big scare story” backlash here. Plus top end of the world/pig product pun, to boot.
As pointed out, no that would not count as phase 5 (primarily because seasonal flu is a regular occurrence, and thus the cases would be perfectly within normal expectations). But regardless: for the third time, the absolute numbers are not what is important; it’s how it is spreading. Every single epidemic starts off with only a few cases - this has almost no bearing on how serious they turn out to be. Doesn’t this make sense to you? Why do you insist we be warned only when the horse has bolted?
Despite the fact that sensible precautions such as isolation, improved hygiene and careful employment sick leave policy have the potential to save thousands of lives? Who do you know who is actually panicking? I’ve seen far more people whinging about the media than I have running around buying face masks. Fairly basic measures can prove of great help to prevent the spread of an illness, and this requires the public to be kept up to date and informed, not issued decrees from on high when the situation turns nasty.
I have literally no idea how you expect a bunch of epidemiologists to shut the media up, incidentally. Surely the best they can do is provide the facts in as clear a manner as possible, which indeed they have been doing.
“If it was Monkey Wank Fever going around, rather than swine flu, I think the national mood would be a lot more buoyant.”
Maybe, but who would dare leave the house?
In case anyone hasn’t seen it already, there’s an internet diagnostic:
Yeah, well, that makes two of us. gonzomax, would it kill you to try to be clearer?
Then let me help you. Level 5 means it has person to person spread and it is in 2 W.H.O. countries.
That seems a long way from a dangerous situation. In Michigan we shut a whole school district for 10 days because a kid had the flu. Turns out it was the regular flu. Yet they are still shut down.
I see 100 cases ,some questionable, in the whole country. That is not scaring me. The only thing that scares me is the over reaction. The health authorities are apparently afraid of something .
I imagine the “health authorities” are afraid that this incarnation of influenza will turn into a crippling global plague.
I thought this was sufficiently obvious, but one never knows these days.
Yes. The fucking flu, you cretin.
Edit: And if some clown says, “fucking flu? That doesn’t sound so bad, hur hur,” I will personally eviscerate them with a salad fork.
This part of the quote is succinctly and more effectively stating what I was trying to say in my previous posts.
Interesting concept too: Meta-news! Reporters reporting on the validity of their reporting.
When people lose faith in the actual quality of information, you are more likely to have people ignoring evacuation orders when the category 5 storm is heading toward their beach house.
10 days?!? Where the hell did this happen?
People do stupid things, and make stupid decisions all the time. I’m not sure why you think that is proof that this situation may not become serious.
If you don’t like the results from above, try this:
Apparently the Swine Flu has now been renamed the Influenza A (H1N1) as it was deemed offensive to pigs and the pork industry as a whole.:rolleyes:
Where were all the offended Teacher’s Aids and Nurse’S Aids?
I’m pretty sure that pigs weren’t offended. They’re probably trying to avoid creating a drop in pork sales, which makes sense.
Looks like part of the problem is that “Certain countries are apparently still laboring under the misapprehension that infected pork is a major carrier of the virus. In actuality, the virus is a much more dangerous airborne variety.”
Greeeeat the article linked above says people are misinformed and then goes on to misinform. Or at least that article says it’s an “airborne virus”, while a WHO spokeswoman confirmed that the virus is not airborne.
Oh Thank You Obi Wan! Really? I never would have guessed:smack:!
I dunno, have you seen the pigs on the news lately? They look pretty pissed.
Didn’t look like you would’ve. You were the one claiming that pigs were offended and rolling your eyes at a name change implemented to eliminate confusion. If you want to get all huffy, that’s fine too.
Hmmm.
When the level was raised to 5, media sources seemed happy to let people assume The Stand was straight-up happening right this very minute.