Monday, April 27, 2009
Hargrove Swine Flu: The Pandemic Du Jour
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 12:56 PM
In the mid-Aughts, flocks of birds became menacing, winged vectors. Now we're looking at decidedly un-Kosher, filthy vehicles for the virus: Pigs. The CDC is already calling the European Union's travel advisory "unwarranted," which in bureaucrat-speak can be translated to mean "shenanigans." So how many times can public health officials cry "bird" or "pig" or, maybe some day, "kitten," before the public becomes inured to portentous cable news clamoring over the latest pandemic threat?
We had a swine flu scare at Fort Dix in 1976. One soldier died and several others were hospitalized. President Gerald Ford launched a mass vaccination program, hastily concocting a vaccine that, in the end, was worse than the flu itself, causing about 500 cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
Comments (3)
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Yay, Alvin C. York. When they told him he should go fight in Europe because he was thereby keeping his own country safe and free, he said, "When they march on Fentress County, I'll fight them." We have a real problem in this country with WHEN IS IT TIME TO WORRY. If you listen to the news, it's always time to worry.
My ninty year old mother sitting in her assisted living room in Middle Tennessee watching t.v. has decided to eat no more ham or pork chops!
Just wait, within a few weeks, they'll be beating up Hispanics on our streets because they're supposedly bringing us "swine flu."
If we couldn't get the news, maybe we could be more concerned with the real things that are happening in our real lives. But I look to see the borders between the U.S. and Mexico closing soon. As you said, warm and fuzzy, safe and not dangerous doesn't sell.
"My ninty year old mother sitting in her assisted living room in Middle Tennessee watching t.v. has decided to eat no more ham or pork chops!"
LOL. That will last until the pork lobby decides to get into the game and start twisting some arms in the media and in Washington.
And awawyyyy we goooooo!
