Oink Oink, I Am Sick

Before I even jump up onto my soap box, take a look at that little guy. How stinking cute is he? I mean, look at that little (pig?) nose and those cute little legs. This is why I like Sophie so much. She is just adorable! OK, enough of that.

Let me be the first to say, in at least a public sense, that I am sick and tired of hearing about this swine flu. It is everywhere. You turn on CNN and you hear of all the cases that have been reported around the world. You turn on your local news, and every single news station in the area for that matter, and you are hearing about the most recent out breaks and the current totals in your state. You turn on your lap top, in hopes of getting away from it and every site that you visit you find information on how to stop the flu, how to prevent the spread of the disease, and just simply information on what it is. (Does anyone actually know what it is?)

I happen to have given an ounce, and an ounce too many, of attention to this very recently. The flu, basically, works like a human DNA strand does. You take the initial virus, and it creates itself to fit that person it has infected. And unlike the regular influenza being the same strain in everyone it touches, the swine flu molds itself to fit each and everyone that it infects. This, in turn, makes an anti-virus (not computer related) impossible to create. It is like having a different disease in every single person that it infects.

So they are trying to track down the person that started this (and they think that they found a young boy in Mexico) so they can begin to understand the basis of this out break. But what do you think they will do with it? Let’s say they have found the boy. First off, Mexico City (where he lives) is one of the dirtiest places on the planet. How are they ever going to know for sure that he was the one that started it? I want to see that research.

But what I am sick and tired of seeing and hearing about is the disease itself. Quit talking about it for crying out loud. I get it; I might get sick. If I have a loss of appetite, a fever, and basically every single other symptom of the flu, then I might have the swine flu. So what do I do to prevent it? According to those in charge of the prevention of, and the spread of, I am to stop touching door handles unless I have to, I am to stop shaking hands, and I am to carry around a bottle of disinfectant with me everywhere I go spreading it all over my hands every few hours. Yeah, like that is going to happen.

I have a better way of preventing it. Get some rest every night. Take your vitamins. Eat healthy food and make sure that it is processed before you put it into your system. Wash your hands after you go to the restroom. And when you feel an ounce of sickness in your body, bite the self worth bullet and go to the doctor. It is better, for this or any other disease, to have early detection. It is much easier to stop before it spreads.

But let’s take a step back and talk about the regular old, yearly vaccine preventing (that usually never does anyway) flu. This flu, known by most as, well, the flu, kills thousands of people every year. Actually, to date, the swine flu has killed a fraction as the swine flu this year. We are only into the fifth (not quite) month of the year and over 15,000 people have already died, in the United States alone, from the regular old flu. But of course, that is not something to talk about.

It takes a three year old girl in Texas to get diagnosed with and die from the swine flu to gain any attention. I mean, what about all the thousands of people that die in car crashes every day? Or the people that drown, or are beaten to death, or die of just plain old age? Where is their media attention? Why are they not getting some time on the air?

I just don’t understand why we, as a people, get so caught up in, and basically become obsessed with, whatever the media tells us. I want you to remember this in three months. Remember the swine flu, how many people had it, and the city in which it is said to have started. You won’t be able to. The reason being that this is a fad. It will come, scare a few people, raise immediate alarm, and then will be gone. Of course, unless you get the flu yourself.

By the way, it has only been around for a couple of weeks and I am already starting to make jokes about it. Look at Facebook. Anytime that someone says, “I don’t feel well,” or, “I think I am getting a headache,” or anything at all in that nature, I throw a comment that revolves around the swine flu back at them. It is a joke and it has not even affected that many people.

Get over the swine flu, take your vitamins, and pass me the bacon so I can enjoy a pig the way it was meant to be enjoyed.