Sunday, June 07, 2009

it's time to panic!

well then, swine flu seems to be doing its best to be the pandemic that WHO so reluctantly trying to admit.
and of course, the whole world is trying its fucking best not to appear too panicky -- while actually panicking like there's no tomorrow.
they should panic!! there's no way of knowing if this shit will be the next 1918 pandemic that killed 50 million (and that is the low end of estimates).

still, some pause (and a bit of rationality) needs to be considered. for one, swine flu has infected 25,000 people so far, and killed 150, for a fatality rate of less than 1%. in other words, even if one has swine flu, there's a 99% chance the infected person will survive.

in comparison, the 1918 Spanish flu has a mortality rate of around 3%. SARS has a mortality rate of almost 10%. and both can't even compare to the numbers for malaria. malaria kills one MILLION children every year in Africa alone.

the world doesn't care though (maybe because malaria only kills the POOR). they panic on swine flu and SARS, which kill less people in a year than malaria does in a single DAY.

in fact, even rabies is far more dangerous than swine flu. rabies kills 55,000 PER year, and has a 99.9999% mortality rate (in all of recorded history, only SIX had survived).

nevertheless, as i've said, there's no way of knowing what this shit will bring us. so it's prudent to say that we should PANIC with all the enthusiasm that we can muster.

Random thoughts on politics, social issues, money, finance, sex, humor, stupidity, or just about anything, of a hatemonger, an obsessive-compulsive, and a schizophrenic forced to live in a cramped and humid apartment.