Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Swine Flu take 4

GMTV this morning and the startling news that the WHO is going to classify the Swine Flu outbreak as a pandemic. The new girl Emma Crosby asked a talking head what a pandemic is and his answer was that it was a worldwide outbreak although in this case it means more than two countries. Emma then stated that this had been out of the news for a while and forgotten.

Yeah obviously forgotten by the researchers on the story because as I (and they and everyone else) stated in April the alert had increased to Level 5 which is a pandemic. So um the WHO are reclassifying this pandemic as a... pandemic? Well yes they're thinking about increasing the alert level from 5 to 6 the differences between which I've already stated.

Ah but who cares about the nitty gritty when it attracts viewers IT'S (still) A PANDEMIC. Panic, panic; until we forget about it again.

2 comments:

Orphi said...

Swine flu: 200 dead world-wide so far.

Bird flu: 160 dead world-wide so far.

Cars: 3,864 deaths per year, and that's just the UK.

Yep, but swing flu is new. Nobody thinks about cars any more.

Gotta love the blatent and total lack of perspective amount the human race…

FlipC said...

2,946 road fatalities in 2007, but this is a PANDEMIC totally different ;-)

Perceptually I suppose it is. I mean if you hark back to ye ancient days if one member of your tribe caught something chances are the lot of you will so over-reaction in that instance is a survival trait. Another member getting stomped on by a mammoth is unlikely to directly affect you.