Undoubtedly, you have heard of the Swine Flu. Unfortunately, you have heard of it a little too often. Ad nauseam, I would say, but then you'd ask if this was a symptom. It seems that fear campaigns bring media the most popularity, and this meant they could not pass up such a golden opportunity. From every direction we are flooded with fear-breaking headlines like the following:
I do not want to throw statistics at you, neither do I wish to link to hundreds of jargon-heavy empirical research articles to prove my point. What I do want you to do, however, is to use your own common sense. Analyze information provided to you not only by the immediate presentation, but by integrating your past knowledge, your life experience as well as by simply looking up important things that seem to be missing. Read, understand, take a step back. Look at the big picture. Think. Do what Socrates
did. Here is a sample of questions you might want answered before you barricade yourself in your custom made bunker with 30 years' worth of food and water.
- How many people got sick? survived? died? from this H1N1 swine flu.
- How infectious is it?
- How does the swine flu compare to other things that are not reported in this article, e.g. influenza in terms of virulence?
Just to finish on a rather entertaining, yet certainly not serious, idea (except if you are from Mexico):
Found on
http://snooz3r.tumblr.com/post/101960469/symptoms
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