From A.M. Costa Rica last Tuesday:

 “Confirmed flu sufferer Arias to spend a week at home
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Oscar ariasPresident Óscar Arias Sánchez has the swine flu and will be at home in Rohrmoser at least until Monday, health officials and Casa Presidential said Tuesday.

Arias, 67, is considered in a higher risk group because he has asthma. Weighing against that is that he is in an age group that probably has been exposed to a relative of the current swine flu virus sometime earlier in life. Health officials describe his illness as mild.”

It is a week later and he is doing fine. I guess. Unbelievably, his illness has not made the papers since last Wednesday. I mean, WE ARE IN A PANDEMIC, PEOPLE, and a HEAD OF STATE has the “deadly” swine flu. HELLO!!!

Ok, I’m being sarcastic. Can you tell? And have you noticed how you can’t read about swine flu without the adjective “deadly”? Relatively speaking, hardly anyone has it and only a tiny fraction of those people who got it have died and everyone who has died – God rest their souls – has had an underlying medical complication. To say they “died of swine flu” is pushing the envelope. Maybe swine flu pushed them over the edge, but it is hardly “deadly” in and of itself.

And of course The Numbers of The Infected are growing: nobody’s doing lab tests anymore to confirm it! You call in, you get diagnosed over the phone and whatever it is you have is chalked up to swine flu. Sadly, I’ve read of three deaths due to misdiagnoses over the phone: a young mother and a two year old of meningitis and a teenage girl of tonsilitis, as well as a host of prolonged suffering due to misdiagnoses.

SIDE NOTE: In the public health system in the U.K., doctors get a bonus for discovering cases of swine flu. Apparently they are backdating their records now… no one gets regular flu anymore. It’s all swine flu. Pretty funny, huh?

I am truly sorry Arias has swine flu. Flu is miserable. But he is 67 years old, has asthma. He’s not in hospital. He’s fine, it’s a mild flu. There is no panic. Could the rest of the world get a grip?

Previous Post
Next Post