Thursday, April 30, 2009

Don't Talk to me about Swine Flu

That probably isn't a good idea at the moment! Someone emailed me this picture today & it lightened the mood.

Yesterday at the local playground I was chatting with one of the dads who stays at home and he was saying how transfixed he was by the whole swine-flu thing. Even going on the interactive maps on the Internet to see where it was spreading and he glued himself to the news channel all day. While he was telling me this his wife kept looking at me and rolling her eyes but I can see how you'd get like that. I'm scared too, mostly because I have two tiny human beings in the house, one of whom has no immune system.

Because I'm scared this time, I am doing my best to completely ignore telly, paper and radio coverage, even though we have cases in Central Ohio. I don't want to know because I can't do anything about it, other than not organise a trip to Mexico anytime soon and make sure we all wash our hands. While it doesn't sound like much of a cunning plan it's working for me right now. I wouldn't call it denial, I'd call it "being selective with my information intake"

For example, someone told me today that 36,000 people die each year from the regular seasonal flu and that the 23 month old boy that died in Texas had other medical problems. So I'm choosing to believe that, even though it's probably complete nonsense.

3 comments:

MikeH said...

I think you are doing the right thing. The media are just scaremongering, and have probably latched gleefully onto this story because they were getting tired of scaring the bejesus out of us about the economic crisis. Bad new = big money for the news industry.

That said, wash your hands frequently and don't kiss any pigs.

Oma Froehle said...

Funny thing about the swine flu thing, I am concerned but agree with Mike that the media has us all scared spitless about the economy and are driving the stake in our hearts with the pandemic thing.

Stock up on germicidal hand cleaner, but let's not don surgical masks on the street just yet.

Pam said...

Hi Mike,
No kissing pigs? Well that makes zoo trips less interesting.
Hi Kathy,
Looking forward to seeing you at the big 'do" this weekend!