Now, I’m as much of a fan of knee jerk reactionist journalism as everyone else, but even I am foaming at the mouth at the latest round of gibberish that Fleet Street (and the BBC) have been churning out.
In amongst the stories of Michael Jackson’s love-children, Jordan’s imploding breasts and The Ashes, the biggest story has been swine flu.
GP and child with swine flu die, screamed the headline on 13th July 2009. We’re all going to hell in a pigskin handbag, and Fergus Walsh is on hand to tell us all about it.
His “measured blog” contained one update called “Time for concern, not panic” and another called “What are the chances of dying from swine flu?”
Turns out that neither the GP nor the child died directly of swine flu, but this information is strangely lacking from the subsequent blogs. The general consensus is that if you’re already poorly, contracting swine flu is pretty bad news. But that’s nothing compared to the advice if you’re pregnant.
The advice that suddenly appeared everywhere was that pregnant women should not go out in big crowds, as they might contract swine flu. They might just as well have advised them not to step out into roads, because there might be cars coming. In the end, shock horror, the advice was to use common sense.
To quote Bill Hicks “You are free to do as we tell you”.
In amongst the stories of Michael Jackson’s love-children, Jordan’s imploding breasts and The Ashes, the biggest story has been swine flu.
GP and child with swine flu die, screamed the headline on 13th July 2009. We’re all going to hell in a pigskin handbag, and Fergus Walsh is on hand to tell us all about it.
His “measured blog” contained one update called “Time for concern, not panic” and another called “What are the chances of dying from swine flu?”
Turns out that neither the GP nor the child died directly of swine flu, but this information is strangely lacking from the subsequent blogs. The general consensus is that if you’re already poorly, contracting swine flu is pretty bad news. But that’s nothing compared to the advice if you’re pregnant.
The advice that suddenly appeared everywhere was that pregnant women should not go out in big crowds, as they might contract swine flu. They might just as well have advised them not to step out into roads, because there might be cars coming. In the end, shock horror, the advice was to use common sense.
To quote Bill Hicks “You are free to do as we tell you”.
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