[Sean]

Originally Posted by cacophony

i beg to differ. it was handled in exactly the proportion it needed to be handled while the nature of the virus was unknown. at the point that the news broke and the first cases were coming to light the mexican government was saying hundreds of people were already sick and as many as a hundred people were already dead. that was on first report and discovery of the illness. it spoke to a virulence that could be catastrophic if it wasn't contained. couple that with the rapid rate at which new cases popped up, in country after country after country, and you're talking about a knew, poorly understood virus with incredibly fast transmission and the mexican government raising the alert that it could kill as fast as it could travel. not only that, the reports coming out of mexico were saying it was the young and fit who were dying first, which is a highly abnormal way for the flu to kill. so now you've got fast transmission, rapid death, and illness among the strong. all reasons to react as quickly and as vocally as the WHO and CDC did.

it takes time to understand microoganisms. in the time it takes to isolate and thoroughly understand the nature of a virus and study how illness affects the infected, they can spread to hundreds and thousands of immune-compromised people.

it takes one person contracting a new, deadly virus to walk into a daycare or nursing home, sneeze, and touch a doorknob.

what we CAN'T do is decide it's crying wolf just because the world didn't end. you can't know the level of pandemic that something like this is going to reach without studying its mode of transmission and trying to keep pace with it. you can't get one step ahead of an unknown new bug.


what if katrina had never hit new orleans? knowing what you know now, do you think people would have been any safer living in the 9th ward with the insufficient levees just because that one storm didn't hit? what would happen the next time a storm really did hit? the danger was present. if evacuating 3 times on a false alarm means the 4th evacuation clears people from deadly consequences, the 3 false alarms were worthwhile drills.

Reports that "swine flu could wipe out tens of millions of people" (actual CNN quote) when only like a dozen people were actually sick is irresponsible overkill to an incredible, brazenly out of proportion degree.