A few months back everyone was freaking out about the Swine Flu. You may remember. A few deaths were reported and mass panic ensued. Still, even though cases of swine flu were appearing in our own neighborhood, the fear diminished in a few weeks. Since last Spring's panic I hadn't much about Swine Flu until today when I read an article about country wide vaccinations for the virus. This immediately made me think of a book I started a few days ago called The Science of Fear. The book explains how developed nations are increasingly becoming more worrisome and panic-stricken due to irrational threats. In the first few chapters the author lists predictions made by several respected sociologists that society's irrational fear will doom man-kind within the next hundred years. I began to wonder if the production of a vaccination for Swine Flu had begun simply because of irrational fear. I think that if Swine Flue were a serious threat, media coverage wouldn't have ceased over the past few months. I have heard that Swine Flu is as much a threat as the common flu. Infact, more people die each year from the common flu than from Swine Flu. I can't help but wonder if this is a step on the irrational fear ladder to self-caused destruction. Could we be doing more harm by creating this vaccination than would be done if we did not? Are we merely supporting the fear epidemic that has slyly corrupted our society? POST!
Swine Flu Vaccination Article -
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_he_me/us_med_healthbeat_swine_flu_q_a;_ylt=AgRXxE_NkLdIg.19pIbmPPes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNoNjBzcDkyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMDA1L3VzX21lZF9oZWFsdGhiZ
WF0X3N3aW5lX2ZsdV9xX2EEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwMyBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWM
DeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDc3dpbmVmbHV2YWNj
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I completely agree that people have gone way overboard on this whole swine flu thing. I personally think that the irrational fear of the end of the world has been around in pretty much every generation. For example, during the cold war, everyone worried that the world would be nuked every day. The odds of being nuked then and now are about the same, but no one talks about it anymore. My personal opinion is that we place too much importance on ourselves as a generation. We think that we actually matter enough, in the grand scheme of all human history, to be the last generation ever. How conceited of us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Lizzy, and literally just did a blog post about 2012. People have a tendency to exaggerate anything way beyond its limit. Also, this usually results from not knowing all the facts. Like swine flu, the media blew the story out of proportion, and the average person didn't know much about it, so it became the next pandemic killer. Now that people found out it is just like common flu, the fear subsided.
ReplyDeleteAndy, let me show you how to link better so it doesn't take up half your post length!
ReplyDeleteFound your post a little hard to follow, especially with lines juxtaposed lie this: "I have heard that Swine Flu is as much a threat as the common flu. Infact, more people die each year from the common flu than from Swine Flu."
So which flu is more dangerous? And how does fear of flu stem from creating a vaccine? Wouldn't many suggest that NOT making a vaccine would be irresponsible?