And see, not one hour after the Solipsist told everyone to calm down over the whole swine flu thing, the World Health Organization has agreed! They, too, agree that we should stop worrying about swine flu--because it's not to be called "swine flu," anymore. Henceforth, in an attempt to get Egyptians to stop slaughtering pigs and to get us Jews back on pork shops, the WHO has declared that the flu formerly known as swine should be known by its proper name, "influenza A (H1N1).
Uh. . . yeah, that's catchy.
FWIW, I recently heard on NPR that the Israelis were considering renaming the outbreak the "Mexican Flu", to avoid offending orthodoox Jews who are offended by anything pig-related. This, in turn, offended the Mexican Ambassador, who protested that this name change offends his country. The Israeli offical recanted by stating "we were just kidding". Apparently, the reality is most Israelis have no problem calling it Swine Flu.
ReplyDeleteContrary to the reaction of their Egyptian neighbors, the Palestinians have no issues with the swine-y name. But it does make you wonder why these two ancient religions, which span millions of followers, spurn these creatures. Betcha they put together the association between piggies and disease a LONG time ago. Sometimes ya gotta respect the ancient knowledge. But then, in an ironic heavenly twist, God did apparently make these creatures just-so-delicious (so I'm told). Go figure! "They are succulent, but unclean, so of these creatures though must not eat" or some such.
My personal theory about the relative benign nature of the flu in the U.S. is that our residents have generally been better immunized and have stronger immune systems than people in Mexico, who probably suffer poorer general health and often have respiratory issues relating to the pollution in Mexico City. I do hope that it becomes much-ado-about-nothing, though. Sheez!! How much more doom do we need to add to our gloom? Recessions, wars, unemployment, the death of the Pontiac. I'm not a believer in apocalyptic scenarios, but this does awfully seem like a lot at once.
Still, the last pandemic came on the heels of WWI, and was horrific, so who are we to complain? If Americans weren't so history-impaired, maybe we'd be able to put this all into perspective.
My two cents, Sol.
Your bud,
N.