#12 People Who Overreact to Swine Flu
As it is flu season, we here at stopreproducing.com thought we would take the time to discuss a trend that we find somewhat disturbing, people absolutely flipping shit about swine flu. Granted, you might be wondering isn’t the instinct for self-preservation a positive genetic trait? one that should be passed on to future generations? The short answer is yes, but only up to a point. The problem comes when people are no longer able to differentiate real threats to survival from fake threats to survival.
Once the line between real and un-real threats to survival gets blurred for people, they tend to get in a tizzy every time they are in a crowd and start feeling the need to wear a surgical mask to work every time their cubicle neighbor gets a case of the sniffles. As a species, we were only allowed to survive due to our strong group instincts. The natural inclination to come together into communities saved us from being individual animal snacks, like pudding cups for saber-tooth tigers. So this sort of anti-communal, anti-social is not beneficial for the race and should be snuffed out.
The other issue for us here at stopreproducing.com is that if you freaked out about swine flu, then you clearly have no capacity to think for yourself. The dangers of swine flu were completely blown out of proportion by the media. If you had actually looked at the facts and made an independent decision, you would have noticed that the only people in real danger were people in rural areas with no hospital access, infants and the elderly. In other words, THE SAME EXACT PEOPLE SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE REGULAR FLU. We would not blame you for worrying about your infants or elderly in this situation, but the majority of people avoiding human contact and treating Purell like liquid gold were healthy people in their 30’s and 40’s. We agree, getting the swine flu would be pretty miserable, but the media had all of you thinking that it was an automatic death sentence.
Also, people should have recognized that this “global pandemic that was going to kill us all” thing was familiar. Has everyone forgotten avian flu already? Remember how that was going to wipe us all out? And before that it was SARS, and MRSA, and Ebola, and flesh eating bacteria. Since the inception of 24 hour news networks we have be barraged with everything that is going to kill us and/or end society as we know it. We managed to get through Y2K just fine, and we will get through swine flu just the same.
There is also some altruism in stopreproducing.com’s advice in this matter. Think about it, if you get this worked up just worried about yourself and any of your brood that have already emerged from the birth canal, imagine how much more stressed you would be if you added any more to your litter. Honestly, just save yourself that trouble. For your sanity and those who have to be around you…please, stop reproducing.
This should not be happening.
This is a little misleading. Sure there is a difference between reacting and over-reacting, but to say the only people at risk are infants and the elderly is not true. The most at risk group is people ages 6 months-24 years old due to the H1N1/Swine Flu strain being a "Novel" strain which young adults have never had any sort of exposure. My understanding is that the young immune system itself actually over-reacts to the virus in a way, and can cause harm to the person.
Another thing you bring up is previous "over-reactions" such as SARS and Y2K, however who is to say the results of those situations would not have been catastrophic if not for the course of action taken. What I'm saying here, is that maybe what you deem "over-reacting" is actually just reacting. And it is that appropriately leveled reaction that prevented the catastrophic results predicted.
The other possibility is that without making things seem dire, people don't react, so by the news outlets and CDC, etc making these results sound scary, people will actually get off their asses and get vaccinated.
Also, you're talking about swine flu as if it is no longer spreading or killing people, but this winter is when it can really start spreading as more people stay indoors more of the time.
See also: Wikipedia, 1918 Flu Pandemic
One of the major reasons people were so quick to panic and OVER-react was that news programs were comparing it to the 1918 flu epidemic and saying the death toll could rise to that number. You cannot compare the two when you consider the advances in medical science since 1918. Penicillin was not even discovered until 10 years after 1918 and anti-virals were not used until the 60's. It is misleading to compare the two when so much has changed since 1918.
While it is true that medical advances can help prevent the results of the current H1N1 strand from becoming like those of the 1918 strand, it is not misleading to compare them. The news is saying the results COULD be similar if people do not get flu vaccines, and THAT is true. Your point about Penicillin is irrelevant as antibiotics are not effective against viruses and are often prescribed to prevent you from contracting a bacterial disease while your immune system is weak from fighting the flu virus. To rely on anti-virals to treat the flu instead of simple preventative measures is irresponsible as anti-virals are often in short supply during flu seasons, and mass production of anti-virals to treat the potentially large number of people infected would be what you call "over-reacting".
Inside every cynical person, there is a depressed idealist