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April 27, 2009

Swine Flu

Drudge is in full porn mode. And CNN, while saying "there's no reason to panic," devoted essentially their entire broadcast to it last night.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Health officials around the world worked to contain what appears to be a spreading swine flu outbreak early Monday, while one out of every five residents of Mexico's most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus.

...The United States stepped up preparations for a possible epidemic of the virus after 20 cases were confirmed, and Canada announced its first cases of the virus Sunday -- six mild cases.

But for me, I ain't worried, because I know there's no way that anyone who is infected could possibly get past our secure border.

You know, the one that the Government promised us we'd have.


On a related note, I made some kick-ass pulled pork yesterday, smoked over cherry for 12 hours or so. Yum yum yum.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at April 27, 2009 06:47 AM

Comments

I really honestly can't tell if the swine flu thing is another ginned-up story made to seem more serious and concerning than it is so people will go into Something Must Be Done mode and so the govt. can mandate mandatory nose-swabbings at all the malls, or something, or if it really is a big scary deal that people aren't actually paying as much attention to as they should.

If it is a real epidemic, and I were to catch it, I'd probably be one of the ones to die...in that "younger but not real young" age group that apparently succumbs to cytokine storms in the lungs. And I have a jacked-up respiratory system (asthma and allergies) anyway. And teaching on a college campus, where students will do things like jet off to Mexico for a weekend in the sun...

Posted by: ricki at April 27, 2009 08:36 AM

The good news is that this strain is vulnerable to existing anti-viral drugs. So outbreaks here in the US should fairly easy to contain.

The bad news is that Mexico is in no shape to deal with a major disease outbreak in the largest city in the world.

So, for America, the problem is not the swine flu, it's Mexico. Again.

Posted by: JeffS at April 27, 2009 10:50 AM

Yeah, the news hysteria did nothing to help me digest the porkchops I made for dinner last night.

Posted by: Kate P at April 27, 2009 04:44 PM

Good news is that you can eat pork to your heart's content; it's not passed that way.

And it also now smacks to me of a ginned-up, "let's make the rubes panic so they demand to have something done" story on the news.

That said - I'm not sure I'd take Tamiflu. I've heard some bad stuff about freaky-ass side effects it can cause, including "suicidal ideation." Then again, if I got sick, I'm not sure I'd take my chances with the "cytokine storm" either.

But I don't think I'm going to get sick.

Posted by: ricki at April 27, 2009 10:25 PM