The other day at lunch, I saw a girl walking through with a mask on. It could be for some reason other than swine flu fears, but it seemed too coincidental. It really amazes me how crazy the whole world seems to be getting about the "swine" flu. I've read a lot of articles about the flu, about how it's becoming a pandemic, etc. But more and more of the articles, rightly so, are concentrating on downplaying the threat.
First of all, calling it swine flu is a misnomer. It is a flu that can live in people, birds and swine, but there hasn't been a documented case in swine! Secondly, the flu isn't that deadly. Annually the normal flu kills tens of thousands of people in the US alone, the so called swine flu is still in the double digits.
It really bothers me all the fear-mongering going around about the swine flu. Before that it was the avian flu. Can people not get along without having something to fear? Do we actually need the boogie man to be able to sleep at night? I would blame the media, but they are just giving people what they want.
After 9-11, the media went on endlessly about how bad the economy was as a result of the attacks. Even after the economy recovered and was doing well, they kept hounding on the fact that the economy was in shambles. After five years of doomsaying, the economy did tumble. But the economy is a self fulfilling system, so how much was caused by the predictions and how much by the actual conditions? I wonder if the economy could have had a minor "correction" instead of a recession, if people were more confident.
Anyway, as Gabriel Heatter used to say, "There is good news tonight." I made simple syrup for mint juleps. As the name implied, it is a rather simple process. Combine equal parts sugar and water and bring the liquid to a boil and make sure all of the sugar is dissolved. Then let it cool (although a couple of web sites suggested boiling for 5 minutes, I boiled a couple of minutes). Once the concoction was relatively cool, I poured it into three glasses. The first glass had unbruised mint leaves, the second bruised leaves, and the last was empty (which will be my control group). The glasses are now in the refridgerator steeping or controlling.
I do have to say, mint is powerfully strong smelling! When I opened the little package, I just about seized up from the smell. I'm curious as to how I'll feel about the smell tomorrow, or I suspect for a few weeks to come.
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I have been mostly sketpical of the Swine Flu scare. One of the few things that got my attention was a graphic in the Washington Post of August 10 showing weekly flu deaths of children, both normal flu and swine flu. The swine flu numbers weren't any higher than normal flu. But they were at the wrong time of year. The normal flu deaths peaks during the late winter and is then non-existant. The swine flu started in the late winter and peaked in the spring. What happens when the normal winter peak next occurs for normal flu and the swine flu at the same time?
About the same time I read the Post article I saw the Correll's. I had mentored their son Michael 10 years ago at church. He just graduated from college and this summer is being a TA at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Center for Talented Youth (CTY), a residential program at Franklin & Marshall University. Peter and Mark had both been CTY students. JHU cancelled one session of CTY at another campus because of swine flu and the number of students who had been sent home. Further, one of Michael's jobs was taking the temperature of students, some of whom had to be sent home.
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