Now that everyone's forgotten the panic over pigs in the astonishment that one of the better connected businessmen in Egypt has actually been convicted of murder, the World Health Organisation has decided that swine flu probably isn't a pandemic after all. In fact, the word "pandemic" simply means a disease found everywhere like the common cold or tonsilitis, but it sounds too much like epidemic, a word associated with people dying of cholera or typhoid or bubonic plague although it really just means "found everywhere" as well. So now the WHO has to find a new way to categorise things in a way that hopefully will not spread the panic that the "swine flu pandemic" has. Overall, swine flu has barely killed anyone and is probably a great deal less dangerous than the "just the flu" that everyone gets every winter.
Go tell it to the poor pigs.
copyright 2009 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
3 comments:
The sad thing is, this is what they've been saying all along... but people didn't 'get it' until it was dumb-ed down so much that even a wilted cauliflower might understand. :p
btw - kids have been asking about you and begging to come visit. We just haven't had the time. Hope all is well with you and the critters.
The last three flus / viruses I have caught have originated in Egypt. All three lasted well over 6 weeks! To me, the hog culling is an over reaction (and possibly an excuse.) My guess is that I will contract the "swine flu" in Egypt after all the pigs have been slaughtered, and not in the USA (where we've had several deaths "from underlying complications"), and it will cause me grief for a good 6 weeks (at least - if it's as good as the others.)
If the government really was concerned about the health of the population, they'd do more to teach them the basics of good nutrition and child care. We have a perfect brewing pot for wonderful infections out here. Millions of people living on top of each other and still believing that you get a cold or the flu from a brief chill.
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