Will the real swine please stand up?

To set the context right, this post does not contain any new path breaking information about the pandemic, nor does it intend to critique any one not mentioned henceforth. This post is about the wondering of the common man, like you, who has so much information thrown at him, that he has to react first and assimilate later.

A possibly overlooked symptom of the pandemic was the human paranoia. The fact that not all of us are genetically designed to intelligently sort through data and pick out information, when confronted by an unknown fear. This fear has lead to the degradation of a fundamental human trait, that of faith. The fear has us suspecting everything and everyone…from the irresponsible colleague who will simply not follow “sneezing etiquette” , to the college friend whose eyes look “seriously red” since the time he came back from his south-east Asian holiday.

Unfortunately I have also succumbed to this symptom. To the extent that I believe there is an unholy nexus of a few greedy men who seem to be taking advantage of the frailty in human emotions. I sit and think who is to gain from this peculiar mongering of information. I doubt the private hospitals; will they be hoarding the Tamiflu tabs and controlling the information so as to create a demand. I doubt the pharma companies; maybe they too want to create the illusion of the solve-all-your-problems tab. Heck, I even doubt it could be the handiwork of the face-mask makers and hand-wash makers. Do you realize that this is the most hygiene conscious we all have ever been?

Whoever be the gainers, there is definitely one agent in the midst of all this commotion that I have begun to completely detest. The media! Giving us a count of fatalities and “critical” cases, as if they were giving us live cricket scores! The expectation from the media is NOT to be the first to report fatalities, is NOT to be at the H1N1 testing center shoving the mike at a worried mother clutching her sick baby, it is NOT to add to the existing chaos at hospitals by provoking people to “BE PREAPARED!” and it is DEFINITELY NOT to scare the living hell out of the common man. What sense does it make to give a whole bunch of scary statistics and a huge list of precautions and then, as if to justify the morality of the aforementioned “responsible” mask, request me to not panic! But again who am I complaining about? The same bunch of nitwits who jeopardized a commando operation in the heart of our country with minute-by-minute reprting, the same group of nincompoops who cover a natural calamity that occurred in the corner of a city and claim that the whole city has come to a standstill, the “harbingers of information” who have a “breaking news” every single minute of the day!

After all this the best argument that I’m definitely going to get is – “We show it to the people because they want to see it. If they don’t want to, they can always change the channel!” The lamest excuse and the weakest retreat ever! I believe they have an easier choice to make than all of us. But that maturity is too much to ask for…So I pray, for once,

OF ALL THOSE NUMBERS YOU SHOWED OF PEOPLE AFFECTED BY H1N1 SHOW ME THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN CURED! OR IS THAT NOT SENSATIONAL ENOUGH?

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Update August 12,2009

The following article appeared recently on the ET website. A welcome change.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4884650.cms

And yet another example of pathetic reporting.

The story running as a headline in one of India’s premier news channels reads…

“In what could throw the medicos in a tizzy is a report in a leading US newspaper, which says swine flu may not always be accompanied by fever.

In fact, in a significant number of documented cases, no temperature has been recorded even after some patients deteriorated.

So absence of fever can lead to wrong diagnosis, and underestimation of total number of confirmed cases.

Also, screening at airports will have limitations, as a flu carrier without fever will go undetected through thermal scanners.”

I have been hunting all over the internet for the source of this new revelation, but unfortunately the smart reporter did not bother to mention neither the clinical validity nor the actual source. But the intent was never to inform, it was just again to sensationalize.

I miss the chaos…

So I’m here finally. The country which people like me relish about in their minds, like a child thinking of that action hero figurine in the toy store. That toy which he wants so dearly but knows he may never own it. But this uncertaininty adds to the desire, and the uncertainity is really the only reason for the want. Because once he gets the toy, the want is no more and the fulfillment of a desire clouds all other emotions. Fortunately, my desire to see the land of stars and striped sustained throughout the trip and probably will remain since I haven’t seen too much of the place. I was fortunate to see the life in a typical city and a suburb, which is a quiter and greener version of the city. My impressions are based solely on the life I saw around Barrington and Chicago, so yes; it is limited and far from comprehensive. But after 21 days, the one thing I miss and the one thing that was absent is chaos….order in disorder. And coming from India, its part and parcel of my life and I’m incomplete without it. Things are rather predictable here since everyone follows a set. There are things we’re supposed to do, may do, can do and there’s very little left after that. The people are nice or so they seem and every one just seems to be happy with their share of life. The time when I felt most at home was when I saw the Jerry Springer show, a rather queer source of entertainment for an otherwise gentle population. The difference is that back home I just have to take a walk outside for 10 minutes and I would’ve already seen atleast 3 episodes of Jerry Springer on the streets! But we’re still a happy population amidst the chaos.

Its just a case of the boy with one toy in hand – his life long favorite, which works even after all the torture from his childhood, but the new one on the stands is so stunningly packaged that the desire overcomes everything else…