The Sky is Falling...Again...and Again...and Again...

Worry about the Avian Flu...worry a lot...until we tell you what the next world-ending event could be...then forget this and worry about that...

Sorry, guys, I'm not buying it. First, let's talk about a couple of facts involving this newest, greatest threat. In the past decade, there have been less than 70 human deaths worldwide from 'avian flu'. Less than 70 out of a population of 6 billion. Hmmm...then how about this? Since the first documented occurrence of avian flu, there has not been one single case of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Not one single case. Do the math...it doesn't equal out to any need for fear.

Bah, you may say, what about potential mutation and migration of the disease? There's always the chance of that happening and millions upon millions upon millions of people dying as a result. Okay, yeah and sure, there's always the chance for such an evolution of the virus...such is our biological, bacteria-filled existence on this planet. But I don't believe that's the real organism at work here...

Those that have read my past posts already know of my utter disdain of the TV news networks. Journalism in that medium, and under the pressures of ratings and advertising monies, has turned into a shallow whorey shell of its former self. Sensationalism and hype have become paramount in their current construct because, sadly, that's what sells. And selling the news, instead of reporting it, has unfortunately become the fact of the matter. I used to not watch any cable news at all but I eventually decided that occasional viewing is important, if only as a social litmus of our increasingly predetermined and preprogrammed national psychology.

Anyway, and back to the point of this quibble, I watched a bit of CNN today where Candy Crowley (who I used to really respect) went on and on about the pending danger of the avian flu. To paraphrase, her message was that the media are the heroes of this issue as they have brought the message of this potential 'red flag' of doom and gloom to the American public when it may have been a matter 'that wasn't even on their radar'. And she went on to express how interesting it will be to watch how our government handles this coming problem in light of how they failed with Hurricane Katrina. Then Candy said one thing that stuck in my head, "Here's the problem, it (avian flu) isn't here yet". Granted, that may be taken a bit out of context, but I think it addresses the deeper issue here...always be afraid, death is coming to get us. Of course, once Andrea Koppel started introducing CNN's new 'Faith and Values Correspondent', I had to change the channel before I had a bad case of philosophical reflux across my desk.

In short, yes, there very well may be another pandemic in the next half-century and I'll admit there's always the possibility that the avian flu could play a part in it (though I'm suspect of that). But is this justification for the creation of vaccines to protect against a flu that doesn't really yet exist? And, someone please tell me, how preparing for a disease which may or may not occur is in any way is more important or practical than trying to cure current and real medical problems (like AIDS, perhaps). I've seen and read more coverage on the bird virus in the past month than I have on cancer (which kills over 500,000 Americans each year) in the past year. But Heaven forbid that such realities should ever matter to our Fear News Networks, n'est pas? That's just frankly not what pulls in the money...

Yet, as with most issues facing our culture, it's always easier to fret tomorrow than it is to understand yesterday, much less try and correct today. When we fear the boogeymen around the corners, whether it's terrorists or pandemics, we oft discard facing the real problems walking alongside us all...and so it goes...we have nothing to fear except for the news of fear itself... Jage

“The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you can control the people.” – Noam Chomsky