Over the last few days we've seen the spread of something quite, well, viral. Swine flu has got to the top of every news channel story list. The fear that this could turn pandemic (I still quite like 'hamdemic') has led to unprecedented coverage.
The potential impact is not yet fully known. Although there was this helpful quote from the UN:
"It could be mild in its effect or potentially be severe."Thanks, guys. That's helped massively.
It's the top story on the TV news. Major front-page headlines in the papers. All over the web. Including Twitter. Stock markets have tumbled worldwide on the news. All of which proves something irrefutable. We love a good panic.
In other news, around 2,400 people - mainly children - died from Malaria yesterday. A similar amount will die today. And tomorrow, too.
Perhaps we need to call it "Mosquito Flu."
(Credit to John Halton who provided the inspiration to this post.)
2 comments:
Those of us on the border with Mexico are truly frightened by this recent snoutbreak.
I've no doubt that the blanket coverage is helping to instil a good degree of fear (and of course I don't want to make light of those who've been affected so far).
I suppose it's a good job malaria is affecting other people thousands of miles away - otherwise CNN would be going into meltdown.
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