It's Bad, & It's Getting Worse

As seen in:
March 14th, 2006 Record Herald
&
March 16th, 2006 News Journal



How many times have you been told that you're going to die this week? It's more than you think.

Avian Influenza (AI) or Bird Flu is the latest example of scaring the American people. I'm not trying to downplay the threat of bird flu. . . oh, wait. . . yes I am. To be honest, I don't think it is going to be a "pandemic" "epidemic" or any other catch word the media uses to scare us into watching the next broadcast.

I'm already sick from the bird flu. I'm sick of it. In China, the 10 th person has died from AI. Current population of China is 1.3 billion (with a 'B'). Ten deaths out of a billion. That would be one out of one hundred million. Is that really a pandemic? And why are they reporting it now? The earliest I can find of a human being infected was in 1997. That was almost 10 years ago. Why now? It has been a problem since then.

The "experts" are saying that the threat is if the virus mutates and is carried and transferred from human to human. Are these the same experts that kept us scared of mosquitoes due to West Nile Virus? The same experts that had people walking around in surgical masks during the Severe Acute Upper Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare?

West Nile is still here in America, but it's not getting the same media attention it once had. There's a new bad guy in town. SARS has not gone away in Asia, either.

I seem to remember a few years ago, everyone was going crazy over e-coli. Make sure you cook that chicken! Well, duh. Can I get a show of hands on who remembers Hoof and Mouth disease? Ah, hah! Forgot about that one until now, didn't you? How about Mad Cow? Do you see where I'm going with this? It's always something.

Anytime I turn on the news or read the news on big name websites, it's always the same story: "It's bad, and it's getting worse." What an awful way to live.

I recently read a news article that said all of us should have at least one week's worth of food in our house. That way, in case of an outbreak of AI, we could hole ourselves up in our home. The story was written in a way that sounded like if I didn't do it, I would die. (of AI)

The dictionary describes a terrorist as; 'the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion'. Doesn't it seem like the big media is always trying to keep us scared of something? When we stop caring about West Nile, we get SARS. When we're tired of hearing about SARS, we get AI. What's next?

If you could turn your TV back several years, you'd think we were being invaded by killer bees from South America. Go further and the Bot Fly is going to bore into our flesh and eat our bones while we sleep.

These things are real, but they are not pandemics. They are not nearly as bad as they are made out to be.

My glass is half full. I'm always looking forward to the other half filling up, not waiting for someone to come along and take what I've got. Since my glass is half full, pass the cookies and let me enjoy it!