H1N1 Swine Flu: 2009’s Y2K

I am exhausted with media hyperbole (and insanity) surrounding the Swine Flu or H1N1, as the pork industry would have us call it.

The hug is dead.  People no longer kiss (at least in public).  People that cough in public do so at the risk of being burned faster than Salem witches (or at least being kicked off buses).

In fact, I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to predict that Swine Flu is 2009’s Y2K.

As we all may remember a decade ago, we all heard about Y2K for months on end to the point where there was an obscene level of panic that swirled around the famous ‘resetting’ of clocks that would occur as we entered the new millennium, and what happened?

Jack shit.

Life went on.

Yes, there were probably a few glitches, but subways didn’t come to halting stops between stations.  Planes didn’t drop from the sky.  Computers didn’t eat up all of the world’s knowledge as they reverted back to the knowledge base of the BEGINNING OF TIME.  Professional programmers saved the day, assuming they had to.  Common sense also finally kicked in (maybe).

We’ll see the same thing with any flu (pneumonia, cold or other viral disease) that runs through our social fabric over the next few weeks and months:  professionals will treat the sick, send them home, let them recover and all should be well.  This would have happened, swine flu or not.

Now … I don’t want to appear insensitive to those families who have received their body bags and who will likely suffer disproportionately from this or other flu viruses simply because our government won’t arrange for running water.  I think you know who I’m talking about.

And I definitely don’t want to show callousnous towards people and their families who have actually been affected by deaths as a result of ‘swine flu-like symptoms’.  However, every single time a story comes up on the radio or ‘net (I don’t watch TV) about spreading disease or concerned hosts ask listeners if they should stay at home from work if they’re coughing, I don’t just tune it out.  I shut it off.

I’m done.  I’m going to live my life obliviously ignorant of the ‘pandemic’ that I predict will not happen, either because it’s an over-inflated issue designed to sell Tamiflu or other untested vaccinations or because our professional, public medical community actually have things under control.