Here’s a roundup of the latest swine flu news from April 30. You can always hit our news feed link in the right margin for up to the minute stories, videos, tweets, etc.
- Anyone else getting tired of the constant headlines that ask, Should We Panic? Let’s say this pandemic grows to a level beyond our worst concerns. Here’s a tip: We still shouldn’t panic. The only beneficiaries of panic are media stakeholders who have a vested interest in this story. Panic sucks.
- Looking for at least one clear sign that the United States is maintaining some semblance of normalcy through all of this? Here it is: Biden is off message.
- WHO is now telling us that the name Swine Flu was misleading and has caused the needless slaughter of pigs (apologies to our pig friends in Egypt for not getting this press release out quicker), so they are now using the flu’s technical name: H1N1 influenza A. Yeah, that’ll probably catch on. Were these the same guys who rebranded Tropicana?
- What’s one thing that often slows down the flu? Summer.
- Although no one was necessarily looking for it (this time) Google recorded an increase in the number of searches for words like flu, coughing, etc, out of Mexico well before this became a big story.
- Today’s WHO report indicates that there have been seven confirmed deaths in Mexico. That’s a lot lower than what we’ve been reading in the news - that higher figure is actually the number of deaths that officials suspect have been caused by the virus. The big question is why are people dying in Mexico and suffering relatively mild flu symptoms elsewhere. Is reporting a factor?
- Regardless of the nature of your social life, if you’ve ever had crabs, you got them from a gorilla. Here are five diseases we got from animals. Something tells me we give better than we get.
- Ok, what the hell. Panic.
