I don't know about you but I am really sick of hearing about the swine flu! I'm a news junkie, I check MSNBC a few times a day and read 2-3 magazines a week and I am so sick of seeing this as the top headline! Sure, I'm just as concerned about communicable diseases as the next dude but this ain't no apocalypse folks.
Allow me to prove my point. I'm no professional...what are they called...is it math guy? Anyhoo, I crunched a few numbers and this is what I came up with.
- Approximately 500 cases in Mexico, now if my computing is right that means about 0.005% of the Mexican population.
- There have been 16 confirmed deaths of swine flu in Mexico, the percent of swine flu deaths in that country...geez, I don't know but I do know 28 people have died in Ciudad Juarez alone in the past week as a result of drug violence. For now Mexicans have a greater chance of dying from drug war violence than swine flu.
- In the USA there have been 180 cases. Well, there are more than 300 million Americans and correct me if I am wrong but I believe that is 0.00000006% of the US population. Oooh, I'm shaking in terror.
- US deaths are significant here because it is ZERO, NADA, NICHOHO, ZILCH, NONE! There was one death here in Houston but it was a Mexican child who caught the disease in Mexico. In fact, most cases are minor and only a handful have required hospitalization.
- It has now been determined that 1 in 3 Americans diagnosed with swine flu contracted the disease in Mexico, not from immigrants. Oops. Once again racism isn't the answer.
- The CDC determined about 36,000 Americans die every year from the average influenza and hospitalize another 200,000. What?! No school closures?! I'm outraged.
One last thing. Take a long look at the picture at the top. This is your average factory farm where most of our pork comes from. I mean look at it, I just don't understand, it's spotless. How on earth can a disease form and mutate in such a pristine environment? Oh, here is the real kicker. Say a pig catches swine flu but doesn't die before slaughter, guess what, they can and do put it on the market! Mmm, swine flu bacon. Smachnoho!
7 comments:
Thank-you!
Pull up the drudge report, too.
:)
I knew you were going to put a post about the swine flu!
Me, too. Sick, sick, sick of hearing about it!!!
Awesome report Dan!
Sounds like a Dan Rant! I agree, its crazy. The school here is going crazy, they have been complaining about finances and yet they went out and purchased a lifetime supply of hand sanitizer and scattered them all over campus. Every someone says they aren't feeling well a dozen emails go out about potential swine flu outbreaks on campus. The other day Nicole wasn't feeling well and called in sick and when she went back in they told her she should go back home just in case she had the swine flu. The real pandemic isn't the swine flu, its stupidity and the attention crazed media.
Just one more comment, I am sure that thousands of college kids come back from a Mexico spring break with something much worse then the swine flu!
So NPR just did a piece on "All things considered" today, and the Doc that they had as a guest was actually still convinced that this is STILL a problem that we need to take seriously. Most of the people who called in also believed that the "measures" taken to avoid the spread of Swine flu were responsible.
It's disturbing how many people have totally bought into the culture of fear. They'll close down schools for fear of some pipsqueak flu, but when millions more are dying of suicides and drugs every year, the media doesn't bat an eye and no one takes drastic measures to save prevent the loss of their life.
Great article, Dan.
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