My soap box for the week

Is it just me, or does all of this swine flu hysteria seem absolutely ridiculous??? Every time I watch the news, it's the first story they talk about- local or national. Yet today they said that the total number of swine flu cases in the U.S. is up to 250. Are you kidding me? 250?? That is less than one in every million people in the United States. I think there are probably almost 250 people who live on our street! Yet the way schools and churches are closing right and left, you'd think one in every 20 people have been infected. And worldwide, the "pandemic" has reached a whopping 1,000 confirmed cases.

Even more funny, they are now saying that it looks like this strain of the flu is less dangerous than the "normal" flu that comes around every winter. I heard the other day that 36,000 people (I'm assuming worldwide, but I'm not sure) die each year from these normal strains of the flu. Yet you don't see schools shutting down every January and February when students and teachers come down with these more common strains. Not that I am advocating that.....but it just seems to make no sense.

I am not a scientist, nor a person who is completely well-versed in swine flu. There may be an entirely appropriate reason for all of the hysteria, and I might be issuing huge apologies when people are dying left and right a few weeks from now! But to me, it seems like all of these "pandemics" that don't come to pass (bird flu, mad cow disease, now swine flu) could eventually lead to a crying wolf type of story. If people are told too many times, "it's becoming a pandemic....thousands could die".....on and on....and then nobody ever does, then what is going to happen eventually when there IS something really bad going around??

One more thing.....we just thought it was hilarious last night on the news.....they interviewed an ER doctor, and she was saying that hundreds of people have come in to get themselves checked for swine flu....except that most of them don't have ANY symptoms.....no fever, no aches, nothing!! So all of these people hear about this mysterious disease that's going around and immediately think they're going to die! My goodness......