You're expecting a population of people governed by what is going on with American Idol to remain upbeat and reasonable when the vast majority of the information they receive is telling them to be scared?
I don't expect people to remain upbeat, but I've yet to see anything telling me to be scared. Now, people may react to something they don't understand by being afraid, but that doesn't mean that that was the intention or rational behind the announcement.
I can understand why some people reacted that way, but I think it was the media and not any government agency that is responsible for that.
How about not having the American people go into a state of panic over the perceived threat of quarantines and forced vaccinations?
Who was talking about quarantines and forced vaccinations?
And yes, quarantine is a standard approach to disease control that should be utilized if necessary. How or why is that scary?
Would it be too much to ask that the response to a threat be proportional to the threat?
In my opinion it was (again, talking about govt agencies, not media). You had a new virus that was spreading rapidly throughout the globe and was hitting certain populations harder in a manner similar to pandemic influenzas of the past. Add to that the fact that it was not only doing that, but was becoming the dominant influenza strain in circulation and I think it was a threat that was dealt with appropriately.
Instead, we declared war on germs. The media blew things out of proportion and government was but a wee voice in the wilderness.
I agree. The media was hysterical with this topic to the population's detriment.
As for the seriousness of the situation. How many people die, every year, from "regular" influenza? How many died from Swine Flue?
First of all, the season isn't even at peak yet. Second, pandemic strains come in waves and we are currently in a lull.
And so what if it "only" kills the same amount of people as "normal" influenza. 36,000 people is no small number and there was no way to tell before hand if it would be worse.
The facts are on my side when I point to the various occasions that the reaction to this virus or that virus has been blown out of proportion.
Blown out of proportion by who? If you mean the media, I probably agree with you.
If you mean public health officials, I probably will disagree with you.
Scientists can't read tea leaves to tell how something will work out, so they have to act on the information at hand and assume a worse case scenario. Anything else would be inappropriate and unethical.
