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altivoStill with the rain and gloom all day long.
I think everything is totally saturated, creek is rising. Neighbors' chickens hanging out under our birdfeeders, gleaning. Leftovers from last weekend's party are finally gone, I had to cook something today. ;p
The rumors and clamor about "swine flu" are taking off, apparently. I keep seeing references to it, usually with dire predictions of a pandemic to rival the "Spanish flu" of 1917-18, which killed a lot of people. Or, at least, a lot of people died after catching it. Modern studies have suggested repeatedly that most of the deaths resulted from bacterial pneumonia, a complication which is now treatable in most cases. Remember they didn't have penicillin back then.
What is really worrying is the utterly short memory of the media and the fearmongers. Back when Gerald Ford was president, there was a similar swine flu scare. Of course, there was no internet or e-mail to spread the rumors and panic, but the media and the government did just fine on their own. Everyone needed to be vaccinated, they declared, or we would all die. Vaccine makers ramped up and cranked out millions of doses of vaccine. Then a monkey wrench fell into the works. The vaccine was implicated for a nasty side effect, a temporary but unpleasant paralysis called Guillain-Barre syndrome. The causes were not fully understood, and treatment consisted largely of waiting until the patient recovered, which most apparently did.
This, however, brought the mass vaccinations to a grinding halt. All the flu scare propaganda was suddenly silenced, and, oddly enough, no pandemic materialized anyway.
I can remember several other such "flu scares" in my lifetime, none of which turned out to be much worth worrying about. "Asian flu" or "Asiatic flu" was a repeat scare. There was a so-called "Mediterranean flu" one year, and I seem to recall an "African flu" scare as well. Most recently we've had West Nile and now the "bird flu" virus. Each time, to hear the talk, you'd think the threat was as deadly and sure to kill as Ebola. Each time, the actual result was nothing like what had been predicted.
I, for one, have no plans to submit to any government sponsored flu vaccination programs.
I think everything is totally saturated, creek is rising. Neighbors' chickens hanging out under our birdfeeders, gleaning. Leftovers from last weekend's party are finally gone, I had to cook something today. ;p
The rumors and clamor about "swine flu" are taking off, apparently. I keep seeing references to it, usually with dire predictions of a pandemic to rival the "Spanish flu" of 1917-18, which killed a lot of people. Or, at least, a lot of people died after catching it. Modern studies have suggested repeatedly that most of the deaths resulted from bacterial pneumonia, a complication which is now treatable in most cases. Remember they didn't have penicillin back then.
What is really worrying is the utterly short memory of the media and the fearmongers. Back when Gerald Ford was president, there was a similar swine flu scare. Of course, there was no internet or e-mail to spread the rumors and panic, but the media and the government did just fine on their own. Everyone needed to be vaccinated, they declared, or we would all die. Vaccine makers ramped up and cranked out millions of doses of vaccine. Then a monkey wrench fell into the works. The vaccine was implicated for a nasty side effect, a temporary but unpleasant paralysis called Guillain-Barre syndrome. The causes were not fully understood, and treatment consisted largely of waiting until the patient recovered, which most apparently did.
This, however, brought the mass vaccinations to a grinding halt. All the flu scare propaganda was suddenly silenced, and, oddly enough, no pandemic materialized anyway.
I can remember several other such "flu scares" in my lifetime, none of which turned out to be much worth worrying about. "Asian flu" or "Asiatic flu" was a repeat scare. There was a so-called "Mediterranean flu" one year, and I seem to recall an "African flu" scare as well. Most recently we've had West Nile and now the "bird flu" virus. Each time, to hear the talk, you'd think the threat was as deadly and sure to kill as Ebola. Each time, the actual result was nothing like what had been predicted.
I, for one, have no plans to submit to any government sponsored flu vaccination programs.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 04:32 am (UTC)One day is like one hour is like one minute is like
one second is like...one life.
You can drill down to whatever level you like but
its a vaugely strange attractor, a repeating
pattern that is expressed from start to finish.
I've noticed that, in the aggregate, many of
your posts come out to be "Soggyday"
Don't let that be your fractal.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 10:58 am (UTC)Actually, the fractal here is the periodic flu scare. They seem to come along just rarely enough that most people have forgotten the last false alarm before the next one arrives. Sort of alternates with Conficker scares these days.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 01:06 pm (UTC)I wonder when there will be a Finnish Flu :D
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 03:52 pm (UTC)xkcd is an amusing comic. And hits a nerve sometimes in a very funny way. :P
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 11:15 am (UTC)