Pig Virus, Swine Flu Or Hysteria Germ?

I know I’m doubling up here a little bit but I’ve just looked at the front page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper and feel the need to bang on about this one more time. The headline reads DEADLY PIG VIRUS HITS NSW, sub headline is AIRPORTS ON ALERT AS FIVE FLU VICTIMS QUARANTINED.

Give it a rest allright? They haven’t been quarantined, they were asked to perhaps stay in their house if they wouldn’t mind until the test results came back, please, if that’s OK?

And as far as “deadly” goes, there have been about 10 deaths, all in Mexico. Lets put that into some perspective.

In Australia :-

395 people died in 2008 on the roads in New South Wales, the Australian state where Sydney is located.

1463 road deaths nationally that year, and this is just Australia still folks.

1858 deaths in 2007 due to infectious diseases.

1895 deaths due to ill-defined causes, as recorded by the Bureau Of Statistics, so, can we agree that perhaps 50 of these were from stupidity?

40287 for cancer.

46626 related to heart and blood vessels.

137854 deaths in total for 2007.

So, despite the tiny little number of deaths in the whole world, and none in Australia yet, they’re screening for the virus at airports. How’s that working exactly, while they x-ray our laptop case and shoes, rub their bomb sensor wand over our clothes and have their Beagle sniff our luggage, are they going to have us cough onto one of those little pieces of glass and pop it under a microscope, maybe swab our nose like the CSI dudes do with the mouth, or will they simply stick a thermometer up our date and see if we’re running a temperature?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to screen people before they left their own country, otherwise we end up with a plane load of carriers stuck on their plane or in the airport?

And lets not forget, we agreed 50 people died due to their own stupidity, so given the large number of deaths that have actually occurred, shouldn’t the airports be screening for stupidity more than PPD? (Porky Pig Disease)

And take a close look at all the cute little piggies on the front page of the newspaper. Most of them are looking cute and innocent, but the one towards the top left with the bigger than average ears and the sly smile on his face, he knows something, maybe I’m wrong here, maybe this is the Rise of the Swine? After years of nomming them, their delicious succulent flesh with crispy crackling skin, they’re fighting back!

Not So Innocent & Tasty After All?

Do your bit today and have roast pork for dinner, this is serious!

Don.