Okay, I finally have to weigh in on this topic.

I have been avoiding it but it is becoming too evident the state of fear most all Americans are now in at this time.

Swine Flu.

Yup I said it. 

It’s time to stop the craziness.  Do you know how many to date have been confirmed?  As of this writing it is 141 cases with one death and that information is found here.  Please note, the one death is a confirmed case from Mexico that crossed the border seeking medical attention so really should not be (and is being attributed in the media already) to the United States total.

Now, in retrospect, do you know the number of confirmed cases (you know those actually who went to the doctor for assistance) from the last year (2007-2008)?  Well let’s look at that here.  Yup, that’s right, 39,827 were positive for various influenza strains.

Keep reading.

Did you know last year alone (well the 32 weeks covered in that portion of the study anyhow) the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected 1,161 samples and identified that 407 confirmed cases of influenza H1N1 (now fondly known as “Swine Flu”) were found in those samples?  So if they only collected less than 5% of the total cases for in-depth research, do you wonder exactly how many were H1N1 infections?

Let’s talk about the mortality rate.  The referenced research data above only discusses data from a pediatric stand point from 33 states and the 83 cases that were confirmed deaths related to influenza.  It is even broken down by strain.

Now you may be thinking I’m an insensitive jerk at the moment.  Keep reading;  I want to get across my point here, let’s see if you can bear with me a bit longer.

Influenza A has been know, and if you read the links you now know, as being resistant to one part of two approved FDA treatments.  So yes, H1N1 is a rather contagious little bug.  However, and this is where I’m getting to my point, it is no different than any other year.  If you are properly following personal hygiene, if you decided to get the flu shot making sure you know you are receiving both types of treatment in your shot, that you try to avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears unnecessarily, you should make it through this time just fine.

So now I have to ask, why are we panicking?  Why do you feel a need for a mask?  Why are you afraid of crowds now?  What makes this highly publicized, politicized, and over dramatic? 

So here is what I wonder, why all the fear?
Why all the “extra precautions” and how it differes from the last 2-3 years?
Now ask yourself who is propagating the fear and for what ends?

Nope, no conspiracy theory here folks, just straight hard facts as reported.

I, myself, am continuing as I always have done.  I’ll sneeze into my tissue (wow, didn’t you learn that as a kid use a tissue), I wash my hands before I eat or after using the bathroom, clean up after myself, and if I’m around someone that “might” be sick (you know that “smell” some sick people have) or someone has sneezed or coughed around me I’ll make sure not to miss my daily dose of vitamin C with a glass of orange juice and perhaps some Airborne(r).  Wow, isn’t all that just common sense?

I guess Horace Greeley was right: “Common sense is very uncommon.”

So, once again, I have decided.  But, does it matter?