Swine Flu Blues

I was welcomed to Monday morning by a daily newspaper featuring three articles about the latest fashion in communicable diseases: the Swine Flu. Generally, this particular daily newspaper doesn't feature more than one article on a particular subject, so this must be a really big deal.

As I began reading through the articles, whose fear-inducing titles proudly proclaimed that the "Swine Flu's Course [is] Unpredictable" and letting us all know that "Fear Over Swine Flu Grows" throughout the world. Apparently, we should all be really, really scared.

For some reason, be it my natural aversion to all that is trendy or maybe just my common sense, as I read through these articles, I began a silent protest against any type of irrational fear of this "epidemic"--which, I must point out, isn't even guarenteed to become an epidemic quite yet. This point is really the heart of my protest. While I certainly feel for those who have been afflicted by this sickness and their families, and I carry some amount of healty fear of it, as I do any other serious sickness, I don't see what the point is of freaking out about this, especially if we don't even know if it will become our next plague yet. And even if it does become so, what can I do about it? How can I stop a plague from infecting millions of people--myself having the potential of infection as well? And why should I spend my time worrying about it? In my opinion, worry leads to stress, which makes people much more suceptable to infection.

Additionally, I am refusing to allow the media to control me by scaring the crap out of me. I highly suspect the media's motive to be to get everyone hanging off of their every words, fighting each other to get to the newspaper stands first to see just how safe or unsafe they may be. People need to make sure that the 'epidemic' is close enough to them that they can feel rightfully frightened but far away enough that they have dramatic tales to read about families being quarantined in Mexico. And the media is more than happy to give them just that for the right amount. I refuse to buy into it.

And then comes the irony, forever present if you keep your eyes open. Sitting right beside the major article about the swine flu is a much smaller article about a group of doctors stating that men over 50 do not necessarily need to screen for prostate cancer. The kicker?? Within the article, a figure is quoted that 28,000 men were killed last year by prostate cancer. Why are we advising against screening for a deadly disease that killed 28,000 people in one year while simultaneously spreading word that the Black Plague, Part Deux is on its way without even knowing how much of a 'pandemic' the recent outbreak of swine flu will even be?

This is my protest, and I'm sticking to it! Until, as irony would have it, I contract swine flu and proceed to stick my foot in my mouth, where it probably belongs anyway.