Pandemic Hysteria

Drag me into a field in northern Saskatchewan, bash my brains out, batter my spleen and leave me for dead. This scenario would be less painful than listening to more hysteria of a looming pandemic which has once again whipped our society into a fearful frenzy. Yes, I am talking about newest health exigency to hit Toronto; the swine flu. Modern society is preparing for its most recent plague (quite possibly the most dangerous thing to happen to humanity since the bird flu scourge of 2008). Recent events on our own St. George campus read like a well written apocalyptic novel: gallons of hand sanitizer strategically placed in every conceivable nook and cranny, masks to be worn when entering administrative buildings, even the revamping of ROSI (the student information system from the seventh circle hell) as some sort of pseudo doctors note generator. All of this, in the hopes of preventing the swined-out zombies from hacking up a lung on campus. Not only has the public response H1N1 been alarmist and socially irresponsible, it borders on insanity for self- evident and fairly obvious reasons.

The year 2005 marked the papal inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI, the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act in Canada, the 7^th consecutive win for Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, and lest we forget, the Mad Cow epidemic. As documented by the World Populations Data Index, the population of North American was 528,720,588 in the year 2005; of those there were 4 document human cases of Mad Cow disease. Filet mignon sales plummeted on Christmas Eve, markets were sent into a schizophrenic spin and ofcourse there was the ban on the Canadian Cattle Industry by our friendly neighbors from the south; all of this for only four cases?

Fast forward to 2007, we are hit with yet another devastating endemic claiming the life of 124 people in North America, the West Nile virus. BILLIONS of mosquitos inhabit the Canadian forest alone, 124 deaths continent wide doesn't exactly scream bubonic plague. Still don't believe me? 2008 Bird Flu catastrophe; all that hand washing sanitization brainwashing bullshit and NO REPORTED DEATHS IN NORTH AMERICA!

In 2007 AIDS alone claimed the life of 14,561 people in the United States of America- not to mention the over 1.5 million deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria affects more than 500 million people annually, Tuberculosis kills nearly 2 million, Typhoid knocks off another 60,000 .... and swine flu has killed??? 3,205 worldwide, including a staggering 36 deaths in the United States. I'd like to take this oppourtunity to point out the fact that the regular flu in the United States kills about 300,000 people in an average year. I'm no mathematician but that's a pretty far cry from 36 or even 3,205 globally.

It's sick really, that the fear mongering media has been able to successfully execute one of the most well-planned marketing ploys in history, preying on the natural human instinct to protect ones health. Hell, they have even discouraged people from leaving their homes if they experience what can be generally labeled as "swine flu symptoms". What does that even mean? A fever? Runny nose? God forbid a cough? You've got to hand it them though, they've duped the free world. With all of this evangelical bullshit poisoning the minds of society, all the 'sheeple' are going to think that anyone who thinks that swine flu is a lot of hype is crazy.

Perhaps our good ol' friends at the WHO and pharmaceutical companies (who stand to make absolutely NO profit at all from a global pandemic of this kind) should delve a little deeper and investigate the completely neglected, extremely contagious, potentially fatal and rampant pandemic that is sweeping our national as we speak—hypochondria.