It wasn't only Korea that over reacted to it. Most countries did. If you looked at the actual stats more people DIED from the regular flu than H1N1 (Swine Flu or as the Koreans called it New Flu.) And it isn't a close number. A vast number more die YEARLY from regular flu yet it isn't given the attention of H1N1. A vaccine was rushed into place to combat H1N1. People were given medicine (tamiflu) that wasn't meant to deal with H1N1 and didn't help in MOST cases but they were given it anyway. The makers of tamiflu made a bundle out of the scare. In some places, Massachussetts, laws were passed that said kids could be taken from their parents and forced to have the vaccine shot.
Last week there was a minor news story on the flu in Canada. There was an outbreak in Ontario and they droned on about people not getting their shot this year. I made the comment to my mother that no was worried about it until now which is why the weren't getting it. Now, I said, the media will hype it up and scare the shit out of everyone. Then you hear about how everyone is scrambling to get their flu shot.
2 days later ... the media had blown things up so much that people were afraid of h1n1 again and the latest news items were about how people were rushing out to get the shot. Nothing like a little dose of fear to make more news and get people to do something.
My mother is at risk so I got the flu shot this year. This was under the impression that it was only the regular flu shot and not the H1N1 shot. I don't trust the vaccine they created so quickly for that, but that would require another post. I found out a few days after I got the shot that it was a combined shot. It covered regular (but not all strains) and H1N1 flu. I was more than a little pissed off hearing that especially after seeing a news story about the H1N1/flu vaccine. It turns out the stuff the doctors were giving out had EXPIRED. They weren't supposed to still be giving the H1N1 shots without getting a new batch of serum ... yet they had. Morons.
This sory, and the one before it, have the common thread of fear being instilled in people by the powers that be.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I've been aware of for a long time, and was explained very well in Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11."
My mother watches the news morning, noon, and night. She says it's because she wants to know the weather, but every day they have a story I like to categorize as "What You Should Be Afraid Of Today."
One of the reasons I don't usually bother watching the news.
ReplyDelete