Piggy [Swine (H1N1)] Flu: Be afraid! (Maybe).

I love things like this. They amuse me on so many levels.

First, is the absolute panic that people get in over this. The media and the government tend to get cautious (or, alarmist, if that's the word you would like to use). But to be fair they are in a terrible conundrum. If they don't raise the alarm people will be furious that the government hasn't done enough. If there is action taken, and nothing comes of it then it's an over-reaction and it's panic-mongering, and it's horrible. I love reading letters to the editor, because everyone is always OUTRAGED! It doesn't matter which side they're on, there are always so many outraged, angry people. People don't get it. There are so many people that just can't chill. People who don't realize that it doesn't matter who you're angry at - which little issue you are angry at the government about, death is still going to happen.

Gutted.

It goes beyond that though - the politics get so much more exciting. THE PIG FARMERS. I love this - I understand how the piggy farmers feel, but I still think it's funny. Initially it gets picked up as swine flu - so people all of a sudden get scared of pigs. A Muslim country kill hundreds of thousands of pigs. Pork sales PLUMMET! Everyone is afraid of pigs. So the swine lobby rears its snout, and interferes to government. In the meantime, Steven Harper [Canadian Prime Minsters] tries to remove any undue prejudice against pigs and calls it 'Mexican Flu.'

THEN, the Mexican ambassador makes public statements condemning this, the pig farmers condemn the other naming, public relations nightmare go all around making ambassadors and farmers wake up in cold sweats about jargon and catchphrases, and they all lobby governments and assail media associations to have this "epidemic"  renamed.

Eventually "H1N1" is a term that is generally accepted [grammarians and numericists everywhere are outraged - but their lobby is not strong enough].

And thus we have a new name for a strain of flu that has killed HUNDRED of people (while the regular flu has killed hundreds of thousands already this year, in North America alone).

And this is the process of disease semanticism.

It's hard not to love this world.