"Swine flu, or...

...making media bacon out of overhyped bullshit?"
Shades of the W. Bush administration, where Americans are expected to either be galvanized into action or terrified into inaction by propaganda. That's precisely what I'm seeing here, but without the government feeding into the terror machine. Yes, my friends, this is exactly what the media capitalizes on, and what we all eagerly buy into - sensationalism.

Am I the only one out there calling bullshit on this pandemic (is it level 5 now?)? For fuck's sake, more people died of the REGULAR flu last year than we will ever come close to seeing die from this embarassingly tame virus which has sent the world into a frothy fervor. We've had bouts of meningococcal meningitis and necrotizing fasciatii (for the layman, that last one was "flesh-eating bacteria") locally that have warranted less media coverage than this. You're more likely to die of PNEUMONIA than "H1N1." Ooh, let's make it sound even more menacing!

I have nothing more to say, except that this is fucking stupid and any of you that I know personally that is not an infant or decrepit should be ashamed of yourselves if this scares you. WTF do you have an immune system for? Go convince your doctor to prescribe you some Tamiflu and encase yourself in a bubble. For the rest of you, go about your daily lives and if you happen to get it, see your doctor (as you should with any flu), take a few days off work, and buy some Gatorade to drink in between stints of sleeping it off.

Ridiculous.