Swine Flu Fever

I love situations that contain an inherrant contradiction (which is why Discordianism is right for me!). So you can imagine how pleased I was to hear KFYI host Bruce Jacobs this morning, complaining about the Government's response to Swine Flu.

Bruce thinks we should be all President Madagascar* about the problem. American should close borders, should be checking people who fly in from Mexico at the airports, and the Government should be a part of this.

Bruce is, of course, a conservative. He would prefer the Government stay out of his business. He would prefer to take care of his own healthcare requirements and not be a part of any government mandated universal healthcare plan, or even have the government tell him what he can and cannot do about his own health. Until now, of course.

Bruce has tried to insist that the Bush administration laid in good stocks of 'flu vaccine. Of course, it did. For a different variant of flu. Bruce, it's not like prescription meds where you can get a less costly generic brand. Influenza vaccines have to be made to fight a specific strain or they're useless. So right now, the stockpile is useless for treating Swine Flu. Not that it matters to Bruce, howling for the Government to take charge and DO things!

Actually, the government has done about all it can; the best things for people to do right now are all about taking good care of themselves and reducing the risk of getting the disease. Stay away from crowds, wash your hands, try not to sneeze all over people. What else works? Well, not much right now. I would say "it's only the flu" but previous flu pandemics were horrific and I don't want to come back to this blog having crawled out of the smoking remains of civilisation to say "uhh...yeah...about that whole swine flu thing...".

I just find it interesting that Talk Radio is politicizing the disease and the response to the disease, that the conservative angle is at odds with their statements about how little they want the government to interfere in things, how they ask for airlines and airports to institute screening with no thought about cost or organisation (how many flights into how many airports around the country? And isn't it already too late? Because the virus has shown up in New York, and assorted other spots around the world, so to start screening now would be pointless: it's got dozens of other transmission routes already, and will already have spread via the various hubs...won't it?). I also find it ironic, since Bruce is the guy who hates Journalists and who seems incapable of doing the minimal research required to prevent himself sounding like an ass.





*some explanation is required. This is a reference to an online game called Pandemic 2, in which the player crafts and releases a disease with the express purpose of wiping out all human life on the planet. Part of the difficulty is getting your disease everywhere before countries close their borders - with Madagascar being particularly prone to isolating itself from the rest of the world. Hence this cartoon .