Remember the Stephen King movie "The Stand" 1994? From the plot summary from IMDB.com,"After a virus escapes from a government research facility, most of mankind is wiped out. Those who are immune from the virus subsequently form into two camps. The first is lead by Mother Abigail and the second by Randall Flagg. Within a few months, it becomes apparent that those who support good will need to confront evil if they are to survive."Which camp are you in? Who will be our Stu Redman?
CALM DOWN! I'm joking.
This breaking in on television this afternoon in the Chicagoland area has to be freaking people out. Did they really need to break in to regular programming? Do they really think our seeing Mayor Daley breaking in on our soap operas is going to reassure us? They really aren't telling us anything they haven't told us before, except maybe that there are now 9 suspected cases in Illinois, rather than the 1 reported on the news this morning.
Don't you think they are just blowing this all out of proportion? There was one question that was asked of the purported experts on Abc, that was something like 'considering how many cases of the flu our country sees on an annual basis and the number of deaths, is this Swine Flu really cause for concern, or is this part of the usual annual statistics?' And guess what? The local news anchors broke in so that we, the audience, could not hear the answer.
That is something that I'd really like to know! Is the media blowing out of proportion reports about a single strain of flu? Are we really on track for this year with the number of reported flu cases and deaths?
One thing I did hear, before the expert was cut off, was that in the past, people may not necessarily have reported the cases to their doctor, and those that were reported. So, aren't we still at a point where we should be looking at, are the number of cases right now really out of the norm? Do we really need to be alarming people like this?
On the 4:30pm Chicagoland local news on Nbc, Mary Ann Ahern reported about the closing of Kilmer Elementary School. After airing the video, she bantered with the female host and said very flippantly that she wouldn't be surprised if there were more school closings. That's very irresponsible to say that on the air.
Have you seen people sporting medical masks in your area? If so where are you?
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 - being not at all concerned, to 10 - freaking out, stockpiling food and hunkering down for our version of "The Stand" 1994, where do you rate yourself?
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Well, I thought I was a 0 on the scale, almost a -6 or so because, like you, I'm just freakin' annoyed with the whole panic. But then Em's been complaining about stomache and feeling like throwing up. Then I'm all like 10+++++++. Turns out, she had a change in some medication and I remembered the doctor saying it may give her problems. Whew. Back down to -1.
ReplyDeleteLove the Stephen King reference - he's one of my all-time fave authors, and The Stand one my all-time fave books of his :)
ReplyDeleteOf course, it didn't occur to me to link The Stand with the current potential swine flue pandemic. My Hat's off to you!! :)
Considering my exposure to other people is rather minimal, I *do* use the El four times a week, and volunteer at a place 3x a week where I come in contact with keyboards and stuff that a gazillion other users have touched with their potentially germy hands... so today I actually packed a bottle of those alcohol-based hand sanitisers... and promptly forgot all about it until I was out the door three hours later, LoL!
I'm not going to be stockpiling anything at the moment... I'd like to think things aren't as bad as the media is making it out to be... then again it might be so bad that hte media is downplaying it (what's going on in Mexico, so I hear..). So take the average of the two scenarios. LoL! :D
@ Lin - I hope your daughter is doing better soon so you can go back to -6. The news teasers between commercials is now saying more Chicago schools to be closed tomorrow.
ReplyDelete@ Lynne - Actually the movie reference in today's post is courtesy of Anastasia. She made the connection, I turned it into a post. I made a quick run to Target today and I didn't see anyone sporting masks or buying gallons of hand sanitizer.
I am probably at a 2. I'm with you, I think this is mostly if not all media hype. They don't have the election, or the war, or the collapsing stock market to worry people sick with anymore so they have to scare the living daylights out of us with this thing. When you think about it all the stress they cause with this stuff is probably what is really killing us.
ReplyDeleteI am being a little more careful than usual when I go to public places just making sure that we wash our hands really well. But that is what I do every time the flue is going around.
HA! "It's the Stand"!!!
ReplyDeleteJust what Dave and I were saying, especially after I saw a HUGE black crow outside the other weekend. This thing was as big as a turkey.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm at about a negative 5. I work at home, don't have kids, am an obsessive hand-washer, eat all the anti-flu foods . . . just not that worried. And if it happens, it happens.
@ Modern Mommy - Yesterday I felt terrible and I think I went up to 4 for about a minute before I remembered...duh-oh it's allergies!
ReplyDelete@ JD - I forgot about the crow! Yesterday as I was pulling out of our driveway I saw a black crow sitting on top of the fire hydrant in our front yard. Like any good blogger I was like, where's my camera?