Comments on ThreeSeven: ARE YOU PANICKING YET? WHY AREN'T YOU PANICKING?

And now the only pig in Afghanistan is being quara...

2009-05-07T14:54:00.000-04:00

And now the only pig in Afghanistan is being quarantined. Just in case. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8038368.stm

Yeesh.

OH! And I forgot to mention that the REASON I was...

2009-04-30T15:28:00.000-04:00

OH! And I forgot to mention that the REASON I was in the emergency room was because of an antibiotic-resistent staph infection! Which was caused by all of the behaviors described by Anlina...seriously, people, eat some dirt or something, would you?

By the way, just here in my town, just among the group of people I know, THREE of them were in the emergency room over the weekend with the SAME antibiotic-resistent staph infection, and that, my friends, is more people than those affected by swine flu in the entire state of Minnesota.

The other AWESOME thing about getting this particular staph infection? The powerful antibiotics I'm taking to NOT DIE, are also killing all of the "good" bacteria in my body. So I'm at risk for other things. Isn't that lovely?

But panicking is fun and lets us feel like we're i...

2009-04-30T15:15:00.000-04:00

But panicking is fun and lets us feel like we're involved in something! :D There's nothing like some good old fashion fear to bring out the best in humanity.

Our culture here in North America certainly doesn't help things. We're so obsessed with cleanliness and sterilizing everything (thank you very much advertisers) that we're convinced that everything - EVERYTHING!! - is covered with filthy germs that will kill us if we turn our backs on them for a second, and the only way to save ourselves is to sterilize the hell out of everything. We won't be safe until we eradicate the germ menace!!

It seems like there's some basic education and common sense lacking. Like say... the concept that in order to contract a disease you actually have to come into contact with someone or something that has the germs that cause that particular disease.

Your cat probably doesn't carry toxoplasmosa, your parrot probably doesn't carry bird flu and that brown person you passed on the street probably doesn't carry H1N1 (and that pork chop that you're now kicking yourself for eating certainly doesn't carry it.) So it doesn't matter how much time you spend together (or how many pork chops you eat), you're not going to get these diseases from them.

I know, I know. That's crazy talk. Without eternal vigilance (and of course panic) how will we protect ourselves?

Bravo! Excellent! I had to go to the emergency r...

2009-04-30T14:49:00.000-04:00

Bravo! Excellent! I had to go to the emergency room earlier this week, and let's just say, it's a good thing I didn't have blood gushing out of me anywhere, because the wait was 3 and a half hours, thanks to all the people convinced that they had swine flu.

In retrospect, I suppose I should have just walked in and said "swine flu" and I would have been treated immediately...