swine flu

I think swine flu is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. We thought bird flu was bad? Now we have pig flu to supplement the infectious disease menagerie.

What's next on the CDC list?

I got it. Giraffe flu. Can you imagine? People growing patches of spotted fur, tongues turning blue, necks suddenly elongating into the troposphere...

I digress.

I get that this flu could potentially do a lot of damage, and it's unseasonable for North America, whose flu season runs from October to February, but does the media always have to use their doomsday prophecies to scare the entire nation into taking Tamiflu and using painting masks to try and avoid it? Taking Tamiflu will make it worse the next time around, and unless you keep your hands clean every single minute of the day, there is a risk you're going to get infected.

What's even more dangerous, though, is the gap between the reporting of disease occurrences to the CDC, confirmation of swine flu, then reporting of statistics to the country. We may think the number is small now, but the number you hear a week from now is the number it actually was today.

Follow all hygiene procedures. Cover your face when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands thoroughly and often, use hand sanitizer, avoid sharing stuff on which another person has left their saliva (unless it's your significant other. If my boyfriend gets swine flu, there's no doubt I will).

Be healthy!