A Scared Citizen is a Good Citizen

There is something that binds all of us together. No matter your age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, profession, social class or hygiene every single human on earth knows what it is to be afraid. Some people can go a life time and never know love, some people see the idea of being cold as an alien concept spoken about by tourists in their strange languages and some people are depressed right up until their premature death while others are never in want of anything. But every person who has ever lived has been afraid. Humans across time and space are connected by a common emotion and it is inescapable. There is no fearless man and even the mightiest berserker would have had a phobia to call his own.

I read in the newspaper recently that local pharmacies are having trouble keeping up with the demand for Tamiflu (the most effective drug against swine flu) and surgical masks. Despite the fact that there has been only a handful of suspected cases (and none proven) of swine flu across the entirety of Australia, people are preparing. Despite it’s complete non-effectiveness people are all lining up for their flu shot and getting a prescription for Tamiflu just in case. Some people are taking the medicine to pre-empt the symptoms of swine flu. Let me clarify: Healthy people are taking drugs to avoid any chance of getting sick.

Doctors rarely prescribe Tamiflu on a regular basis but people are coming in and asking for it now so they can prepare for the worst. The worst what? What are they preparing for? They’re preparing for the flu. Cut out the fact that it’s got some pork in it, this is just influenza. The reason people are afraid is because someone told them that some Mexicans died and then an American died too. Well now! If people from these countries with their record setting, high standard and immaculate general healthiness are dying then surely the world is doomed to end because of swine flu.

No, I’m not calling it H1N1. You can see my other article for my thoughts on that crap.

The truth is that the death toll of swine flu is minuscule and if you get it you’re more likely to lay around in bed with a box of tissues for a week than you are to actually die. Unless you’re really unhealthy in which case you might die but then that’s not any different to our regular seasonal flu virus which kills scores of the young and old every year. If that doesn’t scare you then why does this?