English Blog Number Quatro(?): Swine flu = National emergency?!

The article is from the Los Angeles Times Website: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-national-flu-emergency25-2009oct25,0,7907031.story , written by Janet Hook on October 25, 2009.

Apparently, our dearest president Barrack Obama declared the H1N1 Virus a national emergency. By doing so, he gave the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius temporary authority to grant waivers that will expedite the steps needed in order to set up off-site emergency rooms to treat the flu "victims" separate from other patients. It's supposedly a preemptive measure "to ensure that the tools for a quick response were in place".

So this H1N1 virus has gotten quite a notoriety because it is now considered to be a pandemic. Ooooh. A pandemic. How fancy sounding. Anyway, it's the influenza virus -- just a different strain, so what's all the fuss about? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 36,000 people in the United States die each year due to flu complications. There's only been 1,000 deaths since the start of the "pandemic" -- which was April of this year. That's 6 months. If it follows the trend, another 1,000 people will die additionally in the next 6 months. Whoooaaaa, 2,000 deaths in one year from the H1N1 virus, compared to the seasonal flu. That's huge. I suppose the people from the White House who referred to the H1N1 virus as a pandemic were right. The H1N1 virus is like the black plague of the 21st century. It's gonna kill off all the Americans. How scary.

I think the article, though informative, is scaring people into thinking that this is gonna kill off the entire population of the great United States of America. What's up with the usage of the word "victims" when referring to the flu? Is it some sort of serial killer out to kill the types of people that would make them notorious? A pandemic? No. AIDS and HIV are pandemics. And what's with the whole situation that I'm hearing about mandating the vaccination of H1N1? I understand that people are trying to stay alive, but mandating the vaccination of H1N1 is a bit of a stretch, I think. Also, at the end of the article, with the national emergency declaration, some hospitals are making off-site tents to isolate the infected patients. What is this? Leprosy? Does the declaration of the H1N1 virus as a national emergency and pandemic create some sort of social stigma? I haven't heard of any off-site tents for the "victims" of HIV and AIDS. Are they being isolated as well? Are the articles covering the "swine flu pandemic" some sort of propaganda scaring people shitless with this whole thing? I just think people should just say it exactly how it is, without all the medical jargon that all sound so serioius. That way, people don't go nuts, increasing the amount of hypocondriacs with have in this world.