Spring into flu - and other media created illnesses

The headlines scream, “3rd case of swine flu reported in British Columbia!”
… “responsible for DOZENS of deaths in Mexico!” Dozens! Dozens!

Looked outside lately? Noticed that the sky is falling? No. Me neither.

It must be an awfully slow news week when the media gets utterly hung up on a couple of cases of the achy breaky sniffles.

People are canceling their trips. People are dumping their Air Canada stock. People are wearing masks to work.

Why? Because the radio said so.

Here is a statistical wake up call…

In 2002, 65,313 people died of flu related illnesses in the U.S.A.
Over 65,000! Aaaiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!

43,354 died in Auto accidents. Oh. My. God. No!

936,923 died of cardiovascular issues. Mary mother of God, what, what, what

Coke machines have killed more people in the last year than this current pandemic.
Message to media? Shut the f*ck up and get back to reality.

What, and have the people pay attention to the economy and poverty and homelessness and how the banking and morgage industries have F*****us royally? Oh no that will not do. We must be afraid, be very afraid. Especially of the fearsome virus. And please do not ask how many have died in the Middle East.

— jeanie Apr 28, 11:13 pm #
Well said.

Also, the Freakonomics blog had a great article this morning about the number of people who die in traffic accidents in “low and middle income countries” annually — it’s higher than the number who die from malaria which gets a helluva lot more press.

— Cheryl Apr 29, 08:41 am #
Jeesus I had a good chuckle over this one. Ain’t it the truth. The media must be bored of the current state of the economy and the world and needed something new to be the experts on.

Cheers, Guy

— canuk_guy Apr 30, 09:26 am #
LOL, good one. I totally agree. I’m sick and tired of hearing about this crap all the time. I wonder if I can ask shaw to filter out the news shows to my home. LOL

— William May 4, 04:25 pm #