H1N1

H1N1 - the same influenza subtype that caused the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak that killed an estimated 20 - 100 million people. Ok, that's a pretty big range, but at its lowest, 20 million is a lot of people. For perspective, WW1 ended in 1918, and it took about 15 million lives. I think the war ended because everyone was running out of men.

Anyway...

As much as I'm trying to avoid it, I keep hearing the media panic about 'swine flu'. Swine flu? Is that the best they could come up with? A bunch of students caught it in Mexico, why not call it Mexican flu? But that did get me thinking...

Symptoms of swine flu, (taken from cdc.gov)
Fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Contrast that to drinking the water in Mexico:
Fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

ok ok, I kid. But seriously, chew on this: The CDC issued a statement saying that about 36,000 people die from the regular flu every year.
That's 692 people per week.
That's 98 people per day.
So far, swine flu has killed about 8 people. (They suspect 168, but again, that's a pretty wide margin of error, and they can only confirm 8)

The world is run by a bunch of worthless fearmongering idiots...