On this morning's news, we were told that a deadly pandemic might have broken out because OVER 100 PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN MEXICO! Experts were quizzed about the implications this could have for the rest of the world and the story was spun-out for as long as possible.
At no point did anyone point out that Mexico has a population of 110,000,000, making the death rate for Swine Flu is less than one in a million (car deaths account for around 200 people per million).
Oh no, let's not spoil the story.
I don't wish to seem blasé about a possible flu epidemic, but this isn't exactly the 1918 pandemic, which famously claimed more lives than World War One.
I wonder if the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 is responsible for this bizarre notice which I recently found pasted in a1920s book that used to belong to St Martin's Lane Lending Library:
Well I for one am all for reminding people that their bodily fluids SHOULD NOT be applied to books.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I only suffer from bard flu!
ReplyDeleteBut while we're about it what happened to the good sense policy of fining people for spitting in the street and therefore risking the spread of TB. Surprise surprise TB has now made a ressurgence and is rapidly growing.
Re the 'flu epidemic' this is apparently a virus deliberately introduced to reduce the world population, hence the research into the 1918 epidemic involving exhumation of some of the victims several years ago for research purposes. Oh and 13 eminent microbiologists have died in mysterious circumstances in the last 10 years, some of whom were specialist in flu and disease epidemics.