While * Swine flu in endemic to pigs. That's why it's called swine flu. The pork industry would like to pretend that their factory farming practices have nothing to do with the easy spread of such diseases, but they're full of crap. (Hat tip to John from Taejŏn on the swine flu renaming stuff.)
Maybe there is a silver lining here. I'll wager that the Korean government wages a kickass, all-out publicity battle to get Koreans to wash their hands frequently and cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. And the public will strictly adhere to these new standards of personal hygene from now on.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha! LOL!
No one can get Koreans to do anything that was not their idea in the first place.
I would just be happy if they made it normative for people to not go to work when they're sick.
ReplyDeleteSome day I might actually find myself in a public health setting in Korea (maybe four or five years down the road) and that will be one of my first crusades.
Agreed. And to school and to hogwons. Coughing and sneezing without covering your mouth equals viral terrorism.
ReplyDelete"Viral terrorism"... I like it.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I was set to make work on some PSAs on public etiquette — good-natured things that reminded people to do this or that. Like having the narrator completely knocked over by some ajummas and students running out of and into the subway, giving his whole spiel about waiting turn while in a horizontal position with what looks like people walking on top of his body to get in and out.
But then there was some economic fallout and it got tabled. If it ever gets made, I might crib this "viral terrorism" idea.
I just hope some overly sensitive American doesn't evoke 9/11 and talk about how we're demeaning that. (Yes, that kind of thing has happened.)
Yeah, I should have included schools and hagwons in my earlier statement.
ReplyDeleteTallying the economic loss (which is likely in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars) would be the way to go there.
Now, was it really the pork industry, or our friends in the Middle East, who had the real pull with the President?
ReplyDeleteAs of tonight (U.S. 4/30 -- morning in South Korea), on “ABC World News With Charles Gibson,” medical correspondent Dr. Timothy Johnson, said that this strain isn't near as bad as they had feared and that is the media (including themselves) that may have blown this way out of proportion. This has even led to many school districts closing their entire districts down when only one student comes down with the disease instead of just closing that school (Fort Worth was the one they focused on) which leaves parents and employers in the lurch and scrambling to find alternative child care. Then you have the Vice President making a fool out of himself with his poorly researched statements.
ReplyDelete“CDC's Besser cautioned, not every pandemic is like the disaster of 1918. "There are some pandemics that look very much like a bad flu season," he said.”
While this does look like another case of “Chicken Little,” Mexico’s medical establishment has pretty much collapsed under the strain and handled the situation poorly. I can only imagine what would happen in the U.S., where so many areas are underserved by the medical community and already stretched to the breaking point. However, things are looking brighter for foreign nurses as the US is relaxing visa requirements for nurses under the new administration. Now, if only there were an equal number of doctors graduating as there are lawyers in the states, the ship would quickly right itself. I also wonder what “universal health care” in the U.S. might do concerning future doctors choosing the profession. My Korean doctor friends seem to be boning up on their English in the hopes of leaving the low pay here for brighter futures abroad. I would say that they may be my English students, but that is somewhat illegal over here, even if my hagwon boss may have gotten me the gig. If there was a gig, that is. I just wish their specialties were something I could make use of over here.
The photos you see in the press these days only prove what a trendsetter Michael Jackson is, from music to fashion. Soon the whole world will be gripped by desire to engage in pedophilia.
ReplyDeleteThe only pig virus here is the internet-borne sensational media contagion.
emily wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe photos you see in the press these days only prove what a trendsetter Michael Jackson is, from music to fashion. Soon the whole world will be gripped by desire to engage in pedophilia.
Aren't they already?
The only pig virus here is the internet-borne sensational media contagion.
The 24-hour news cycle may be the downfall of civilization.
John from Daejeon, I think it's a bit early — the disease is still spreading and we have yet to see a downward trend — to say that we "may have blown this way out of proportion."
ReplyDeleteI don't know how school districts work in Fort Worth, but in Orange County or here in Hawaii, I could see them closing down a whole school district for the same days that a school is closed when a case erupts there. That may make as much sense administratively, but if they don't know the extent of a disease in the area, it makes sense from a health perspective.
I don't know what VP Biden said, but he has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth anyway.
It is rather notable that one of Obama's Secret Service advance team agents contracted swine flu.
John from Daejeon wrote:
ReplyDeleteNow, was it really the pork industry, or our friends in the Middle East, who had the real pull with the President?
Well, since they started calling it H1N1 instead of "Mexican flu" as was suggested by the Israeli politico, I'd say the Pork Folk were who got to them.
Hey Kushibo,
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty interesting read that puts this pandemic into historical perspective: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/30/1917163.aspx "PANDEMICS IN PERSPECTIVE"
Damn, it cut off the link, so I'll add the ending from the this partial date: 04/30/1917163.aspx By they way, the Fort Worth School district dismissed all their students for a minimum of 10 school days. I did not see if they would have to make it up during the summer though.
ReplyDeleteA by-product in Mexico City is peace, quiet, and the smog thinning out.
This is a cute picture, but hardly the origin of the pandemic that overran the globe.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nickscipio.com/pod/
Picture of the Day -- May 2, 2009
His "Beauty" and "Gallery" of the Day are more for grown up viewers and very cute in their own right.
John from Taejŏn, you've inspired me to write an entire post.
ReplyDelete