"Swine" Flu... oh, I mean " H1N1" Flu

One more comment on the whole "Swine Flu," which I feel has been blown completely out-of-proportion to the point it should be called "Swine Paranoia." I used to joke that it should be renamed the "Pig Flu." I thought it sounded better. However, after reading about all the pigs that were slaughtered in Egypt, I am no longer laughing.

How stupid are people? I mean really.

In the case of the pigs that were culled in Egypt, one has to look at the motivation for the action. First, the government had been criticized in the past for not handling problems fast enough or thorough enough: case and point the bird flu. It seems like they were just looking to jump--as many people were--to get rid of the problem by getting rid of pigs since it was called "Swine flu." Brilliant. It didn't hurt that the leaders of the nation didn't generate any cash from the pigs, ingest the pigs, or need the pigs for their families' very survival.

Second, one also has to wonder if there were other motivations for the action; for example, perhaps it was also done to take advantage of the impoverished Christians who struggle in the Muslim nation--especially since no cases of swine flu had even been found there at the time of the slaughter. There are mixed feelings on what happened from Muslims, but only one side mentions religion. According to the AP, "Some militants posted online that swine flu was God's revenge against 'infidels.'" Apparently, since the 90% Muslim majority views pigs as "unclean," it didn't seem so bad to do away with them and give an added kick to those pesky 'infidels' in their country.

I do wonder what would have happened if it had been "Chicken Flu" or something that effected the entire population. Would all the chickens have been slaughtered? I am thinking not. At least the Muslim government was nice enough to let the poor farmers sell the meat from the cull... so that the government could justify not compensating the farmers for their loss. How generous, especially given the fact there was no grounds for their action and that they were acting out of fear of criticism and sheer paranoia.

However, on the flip side, the AP also reported that, Abdullah Kamal, a Muslim writer of a pro-government newspaper, criticized the order to slaughter the estimated 300,000 pigs arguing that "Killing (pigs) is not a solution, otherwise, we should kill the people, because the virus spreads through them." Sometimes it seems like only people outside of government have functioning brains.

When you look at what happened to Egypt's 300,000 pigs--and the suffering that has come to the farmers who lost them--there really is one person to blame: the idiot who dubbed this virus "Swine flu." I am serious. Granted, the media spread the fear of this illness faster than a bunny on Viagra reproduces, but the person who thought of the name is truly to blame. I would happily nominate them for the Darwin Award of the Century. I want to know who it was who did it. Seriously. This genius has caused so much suffering by thinking of such a moronic name, and I want to know that there will be repercussions. And, oh yeah, changing its name to "H1N1 Flu" really helps NOW. That's some more genius thinking. I'm sure everyone will start calling it that now...

It was known early on that the "Swine flu" was a mixture of swine, bird, and human flu. And given the fact that it seems nearly impossible that this flu could have been created naturally in the environment, one can also wonder where it really came from. (I am smelling another blog.) Nevertheless, it was also known early that humans didn't this flu from pigs. So, why the name? If it had been called the Mexico Flu, since it originated there, the tourist industry there would have taken forever to rebound. So, who is after the pork industry and why? I mean, with the whole "Swine Flu" fear, who is running out to buy a big ol' ham for Sunday dinner? I am guessing no one, even though you can't get the Swine Flu from ingesting pork. (Case and point the monumental losses the beef industry faced from Mad Cow Disease, which really did come from the aforementioned animal.) Not that I am defending the potbellies in the pork industry or am even concerned about them, especially since they are no more friendly to the pigs than the Egyptians were, but... it makes one wonder, doesn't it?

Maybe the pork industry didn't donate enough to Obama's campaign.


Further Reading:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVjq5eEi7w7p4zgIjnSIiBIZ7RkQD97TEKMO0
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_scapegoating_pigs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090503/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_swine_flu
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_12252751