A Rant on the Side

Ok, I wasn't going to do this. I was just going to write about how my husband's Navy training is currently affecting me, but no. I just have to rant about...Swine Flu.

Seriously? Are we still pretending that these "pandemics" mean anything? I read today that 100 cases of Swine Flu have now been reported in the U.S., and one person has died. To hear journalists talk, you'd think civilization is coming to an end.

A hundred cases of Swine Flu, you say? Gee, let me strap on my respirator.

It seems every spring, a "deadlier" flu starts circulating around confined spaces. People take the news seriously, get whipped into a panic, go banging down the doors of medical clinics to get the latest flu vaccine, and then spend the next three weeks blowing their noses. I can't understand why people continue to waste their time. I haven't been diagnosed as having any type of influenza since I was about 10, and I never get flu shots. Sure, the elderly need to have them, but the average person between 18 and 50 probably has a greater chance of perishing in a fiery wreck on the Interstate than dying from any type of flu.

Some might say, "Oh, yeah? What about those hundreds of people who died of Swine Flu in Mexico?" Well, duh! Mexico is practically the third world country of the Western Hemisphere. Many places down there don't even have electricity and running water. Of course Mexicans are more susceptible to dying, simply because they don't possess the type of medical care we enjoy in the U.S.

What's worse, some government officials and political commentators are trying to turn the Swine Flu "epidemic" into some sort of political issue, saying things like, "I told you we should have spent more money on pandemic prevention!" Really. What's more money for "pandemic prevention" going to accomplish? Print extra posters on the importance of washing hands to hang in public restrooms? Please. We're not in kindergarten anymore--though you wouldn't know it from sitting in on a session of Congress.

At any rate, they can keep their flu vaccine and their scare tactics as far as I'm concerned. I'm confident the human race shall endure rather well, as it has every other flu season. Right now, the weather here couldn't be more beautiful, people are smiling and driving down to the beach, and there's not a sniffle to be heard anywhere.