... and more bad news. What a depressing news day. If you believe there's a glimmer of hope for the economy, you're not just hopelessly wrong, you're probably making it even worse. The Taliban are within striking distance of Islamabad, and Pakistanis just can't bring themselves to care. Oh yeah, and the swine flu will surely kill us all. On the off chance it doesn't, of course, worldwide food riots and geomagnetic storms should do their part in the next few years to help ensure the end of civilization. Good riddance.
9 comments:
Yes, and I read yesterday that, if I am careful with my money and don't overspend, I am dooming our economy.
I wish the Pakistanis would care, because I don't want my boys to have to fight their fight for them.
Couldn't follow your link about geomagnetic storms, but food riots are scary enough. Who wouldn't believe such a thing is not only possible, but likely?
Oh, and we have new pigs here. Should I get close enough to feed them?
Not that it matters; a local doc called into the local radio station to tell them that there are 2 cases of swine flu in his own hospital, and the Illinois officials are forbidding them to let the news out.
Come, Lord Jesus.
So I was going to say that although it's good to be cautious and careful, I'm not sure it's necessary to panic over swine flu just yet, but then I read Melody's post.
We may need those 2001 Monolith stones in Elberton after all.
If you need me, I'll be in the closet. KTHXBAI!
I don't think you need to worry about your pigs, Melody. The "swine" part of "swine flu" is just a category, meaning it's of the particular family of influenza that generally prefers pigs, not necessarily that it's coming from them in this particular case.
I once heard a presentation by a doctor from the CDC on emergent disease, and he was sort of complaining about the flu and how the nature of the disease makes it so difficult to tell how concerned to be in the early stages of an outbreak. We just can't know yet whether 99.5% of swine flu cases are going unreported because it's really not very dangerous, or whether every case is leading to hospitalization, making it very dangerous indeed.
I like Randall Monroe's advice: "Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours suppressed."
Yes, I know I don't really have to worry about my porkers. I admit to some sarcasm there; shoulda given a heads up!
It DOES bother me that we're not getting full information about swine flu, though.
And now John came home and tells me he heard the President say, (paraphrased) "This swine flu epidemic is proof that we need to advance in medical technology. It's too bad we've fallen so far behind."
Yeah, blame the past administration for something else!
It's worth noting that the fatalities that have been seen have been from the typical flu-related pneumonias. There has been no evidence of the very rapid deaths by "cytokine storm" that are characteristic of pandemic flu like the Spanish Influenza of 1918.
You wouldn't know that from the way everyone seems to be freaking out.
Yeah I read that economist article, too. The Economist was kind of Debbie Downer this week, I felt like every article , even the ones that were essentially positive, ended with "...but that is small comfort, when we're all going to die horrible painful deaths." or maybe not those exact words...but you get the basic idea.
case in point:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13576491&source=hptextfeature
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