Pandemic Panic
I recently read an article on the ABC News website called “Preparing for a Pandemic.” The story included a list of “must-haves” each home should keep on hand if bird flu ends up forcing everyone to stay at home for weeks on end.
No sooner had I finished the article than an interview came on the radio with a government official saying it’s no longer a matter of “if” the bird flu will strike the U.S., but “when.” Then, a short while later, The Daily Show ended a segment with a microscopic look at a virus. One guess which virus it was.
Ever since bird flu began to appear in the news, I’ve had the nagging feeling the story was being carefully managed. Managed by who? I don’t have a clue. So tell me, dear readers, what should we do?
(Sorry. Such scary subjects send me speeding to Seuss, where silliness out-muscles such serious truths.)
I guess maybe my paranoia can be chalked up to having watched too many episodes of 24 (although in my opinion, there’s no such thing as too many episodes of 24), but something about this bird flu business just smells funny to me. It feels as though they know for certain it’s coming and that they aren’t ready. And since they aren’t ready, they need to make everyone aware of the situation in the slowest, gentlest way possible in order to avoid too much of a panic.
(Heaven help me. I’m talking in “theys.” Next thing you know I’ll be tin-foiling the ceiling and wearing a helmet with the ear holes plugged up.)
Like many people–perhaps most–I have my head buried ears deep in the sand. In that position, it’s still possible to breathe and sort of see, but sounds are muffled and not as hard to ignore.
It’s easy to bravely say this is nothing but another millennium-type scare, or to recall the mad panic after 9-11, when folks were stockpiling gas masks and government spokesmen were advising how to use duct tape to lessen the effects of chemical weapons. This is hardly the first time Armageddon was predicted, yet in the so-recent past, nothing of substance has come from the scares.
The only stories that bumped bird flu from the news this past week were the latest reports on global warming, complete with colorful graphics showing raised temperature zones and video footage of melting glaciers. Makes you wonder if there isn’t a Sweeps Week for catastrophic global disasters.
(Hey, in the late ’70s, weren’t they predicting a second ice age was coming?)
Countries all over the world are attempting to prepare for the potential pandemic by stockpiling Tamiflu and Relenza, the only two antiviral drugs that are effective against avian flu. But the U.S. has only two million doses on hand (for a population of nearly three hundred million), so our government is advising us to prepare in a whole different way. Remembering the government’s assurance that duct tape would protect us from those bothersome chemical weapons, I couldn’t wait to hear their advice for staving off the bird flu.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says we should buy a few extra cans of tuna fish and powdered milk every time we’re at the store. And, according to him, we should stash it under our beds.
Other nations prepare with a mountain of medicine. We prepare with canned goods.
Shopping list: duct tape, tuna, powdered milk, false-sense-of-security blanket. Head-sized bucket of sand.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I guess I have my head in the sand too when it comes to the bird flu. Then again, I didn’t prepare in any special way either when so many others were panicked over Y2K. As a rule, I always have extra things on hand in case of an emergency. Flashlights, batteries, a radio, some water and food. But I haven’t added extra cases of tuna to my grocery list, just yet.
I realize there are things I can’t control. A flu pandemic would be one of them. I choose not to panic and not to let the fear take over me. IF it does happen, it would certainly be a horrible thing. God help us all.
It’s always smart to be prepared for a disaster at all times, and I don’t fault people for wanting to be prepared. I won’t, however, allow this current flu scare to make me focus my entire life on preparing for it. I think that is where some people start to lose it, allowing the fear to disrupt their lives to the point they are really missing out on LIVING right here and now.
April 1st, 2006 at 8:42 pm
I agree with goodgurls in that, 1)I, too, am unprepared, and, 2)that there are some things that one just cannot prepare for. I also feel that Karin is correct in her feeling that this whole Bird Flu slituation is being managed. As for whom is doing the managing, I tend to beieve the media is doing more of it than all the public heath agencies combined. The CDC, The World Health Organzation, and others in the medical/public health loop may be carefully, semi-quietly trying to call attention to the situation without causing widespread panic, but the media is in the business of selling newspapers and gaining Neilson shares. After all, the media is these agencies mouthpiece. Karin, please don’t take offense to this personally or professionally, but the media, for better or worse, is in the business of managing news. Unfortunately, due to efforts to sell more papers and gain more market shares, all too often we get not only the news, but also the networks/journalists/editors slant on the subject at hand, rather than just the facts.
April 6th, 2006 at 5:40 am
Every time I’ve tried adding my comments to this, my computer tosses me out. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you! (For those with no sense of humor–I’m kidding.)
Maicomike–I don’t take personal offense to your saying the media is partly to blame. Yesterday morning I saw a thing on Good Morning America where they made it sound like this new kind of eye infection is threatening to blind the nation. When they got to the nitty-gritty of it, though, there have been 50 cases in a year. It made me realize how fast some outlets are to yell FIRE! They also made it sound on the promos like it was something contact lens wearers needed to look out for, but of the 50, 25 wore contacts. So why wasn’t it “Non-contact lens wearers should be on the lookout for…?”
As for this bird flu thing, I’m taking it only slightly more seriously than the Y2K lunacy. It makes sense to be prepared for disaster, regardless of what that disaster might be. We have so much canned food in our house already with Geoff’s canned pea collection to last us a while. Someone sent me a link to an interesting article I’m going to try to post here today (if this works).