Mmmm.... swine flu.

So someone at work knows someone who works at a store who heard from a co-worker that one of the customers friends brother got the “swine flu” (H1N1 virus) and had to go to the hospital. Now they are afraid they have it.

Sound familiar? I hear it every day at the office. Some third party connection to someone with the swine flu. There are a lot of people that have come in direct contact with it. I hear it from them too. Sounds like that other person had the plauge actually. People seem to forget how common the flu is. This is a variation of the flu and there is a vaccine. More on that in a second. But vaccine aside, if you get the swine flu then you go to the hospital and get better. Some people die, I am aware of that. Even here in town three people died and they were otherwise healthy indivuals.

Let’s look at some stats though. The regular flu virus kills 36,000 people a year. That’s out of 35 to 50 million cases of the flu a year. That’s 0.01% at the least. At the least it’s a tenth of a percent. You have a much better chance. At those numbers, you have 95 people dying a day around the world from the flu. Car accidents kill an average of 114 people a day in the United States alone. So basically, you have a greater chance of dying on the way to work than you do of the flu.

The stats aren’t the same for the swine flu, but the percentages most likely are very similar. The media hype doesn’t help much either. How come they don’t report every single car death? If they did, people would be afraid to drive. It’s the same thing with the swine flu. Because they tell you about every single death, every single sick person it appears as if the virus is much more widespread than it actually is.

Oh yeah, people – it’s a fucking virus. A VIRUS. That means that the hand sanitizer you are sopping your hands with aren’t going to help. It’s like giving a back rub to the virus and telling it to go back out there and “get ‘em!” You use a napkin to open doors and touch ketchup bottles at restaurants, but you also grip the glass the waiter just gave you and touch the table that the waiter has been cleaning with the same rag all day. After other customers have sat there. Oh, and not to mention being the vicinity of ANYBODY. It’s a virus, not a bacteria. It travels through the air. Viruses are on everything and everywhere. If you are going to get swine flu, you are going to get swine flu. There is only one way to prevent it and the spread of it.

Vaccine. Those of you who refuse to get a vaccine when they are widely available are morons. Unless you’ve already had it. All you are doing is making it easier for the virus to spread. You know who you are. You are the idiot with tuberculosis even though it’s been vaccinated against for years and is pretty much gone. But nooooo, you think that vaccinations aren’t good for your child. Yes, that’s why you are a doctor. If you can get the vaccine, get it. Don’t object on some warped sense of morals.

Bottom line, chill out people. Be glad it’s not the plague. Oh, and be careful on the roads. Paranoia out.

Curtis Silver has the bacon flu, a slight swine flu variation that involves bacon on everything. Follow @cebsilver.

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