PANIC! ITS THE FLU!!!

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... This mass hysterics, H1N1, swine flu BULLSHIT has got to come to an end. Get a grip people its the GODDAMN FLU! If you haven't died from the flu before, chances are this swine flu isn't going to kill you either. It might make you feel gross for about a week, THATS WHAT THE FLU DOES!

You have to worry if you fall into one of three cattegories.

1. You are an infant or young child

2. You are an elderly person.

3. You have a weakened immune system.

If you don't meet one of those three (technically, four) criteria than the odds are in your favor that you will be okay. You don't need to hit the proverbial panic button. You don't need to do a clean sweep of everybody you know and make sure that everyone is just as freaked out as you are because what you saw on FOX news has made you certain that you will get the swine flu and die (For those of you who are more ignorant, Fox News is NOT to be taken seriously by anybody with the ability to cognitively assess logic and common sense)

Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "But Bryce... this is a pretty serious problem, people are dying." Let's look at the cold hard facts. The NUMBERS. In 2009 there have been a confirmed 5,382 deaths to the H1N1 Virus. Of those deaths, over 2600 have occurred in South America. 49 of those deaths have occurred in Canada. That's .09 percent, not even 1% of 2009 swine flu deaths have occurred in Canada. Total, there have been 89 Canadian fatalities to Swine Flu out of over 12,000 confirmed cases. That means, statistically, your odds of surviving the swine flu are pretty good.

Then you might go on to think "That's only a certain demographic (The only one that matters to me, technically, because I'm a Canadian) the U.S. is being hit pretty hard by the swine flu... so we should worry because they're worried" WRONG. Of nearly 59,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in the united states, there have only been just over 1,200 fatalities. I agree, that's nothing to ignore, but lets look at this from a different angle.

In South America, there has been over 2,600 fatalities from over 100,000 confirmed cases of swine flu. So that would extend that, if you live in South America, you might be more likely to get Swine Flu.

THE Flu (as in, the one we've always been worried about getting since the dawn of time) is responsible for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually (Roughly 20,000 or so Americans). That means, every year about a quarter of a million people DIE from THE FLU. Compare that to something else everyone worries about dieing from, Cancer, which kills about 550,000 people annually. That would mean, statistically speaking you're half as likely to die from the flu, as you are from cancer. (Only in the sense that Flu kills, from half to about as much people as cancer does every year. This doesn't really go in to consider that you're more likely to get The Flu than you are to get cancer.) The flu is the 7th leading cause of death according to the center of disease control.

So all I really want is for the world to take a deep breath and ask yourselves a few questions 1) Have you ever had the flu before. 2) Have you died from the flu? If you've answered no (and undoubtebly, you have if you're reading this.) than you really have nothing to worry about! Yes. The Swine Flu is sweeping across the world, yes, people are getting sick and furthermore a small percentage of those people are dying. THATS NO DIFFERENT FROM THE REGULAR FLU. Which, for some reason, has not incited world-wide panic even though it's got more than adequate enough of a resume for the job. Eat it: SARS, Antrax, Bird Flu(which I guess is the swine flu now isn't it?), Terrorism.

Do the resurch for yourselves, get the facts, inform yourselves. Don't just believe whatever the hell FOX news or CBC is feeding you because its skewed from the point of view of somebody who wants YOU to see it in a certain way. Not in a way that would allow you to think about this situation critically and logically as you should be allowed for it is only human nature. But from the point of view that would project your opinion in the direction that they want you to (aka: panic!) If its not inciting panic on a country or planet wide scale, than it's not news worthy.

Until next time that something incites me into a near undecipherable rage that I cannot seem to unattach myself from, or maybe even for once something cool, positive and maybe even (heaven forbid) happy...

PEACE!