State of Fear

[mattpegher]

Swine flu, avian flu, west nile virus. I wonder what the media will latch onto next to sell there ratings and boost their advertising dollars.

Micheal Crieghton had a nice little rant at the back of his book "State of Fear" Its worth reading but be sure to approach it with an open mind, and don't take everything he says without a grain of salt, remain objective.

I will see if I can somehow find it to post a link here, but being an in-print novel it may be difficult.

 

[yllus]

Michael Crichton.

 

[mattpegher]

thanks

 

[ZzZGuy]

OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

 

[StageLeft]

You forgot:

Y2K
Killer Bees
WMD

I made a thread a year or two ago listing these and after input from others the list grew quite large. There is always some constant fear that the media is pushing and in almost all cases it's overblown.

 

[shadow9d9]

People need to feel excited. Fake drama. Hence the run on milk and bread on 1 inch of snow...

 

[dphantom]

Add Global Warming now renamed Climate Change to address anything possible.

 

[sandorski]

We are at the Historical point where a new Plague should occur. Forgive people for being vigilant. Certainly the Media likes to Hype things beyond reason, but that's what happens when the Press crosses the line from being an Informant to being an Entertainer. People like Drama, the Press Profits from People viewing them, Press uses Drama to increase Viewers.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

If, If, If, tons of ifs based on extremely low chances. OP didn't mention swine. Like the others, sure it COULD be a world-changer, but chances are pretty darn low. Hysteria has kept its progression in check, but it definitely crosses the cry-wolf line, too. The problem is the average person has no idea how to assimilate what they're hearing and understand how it really should impact their lives. I bet you most people don't have a clue how many people die each year from the flu or cancer or heart disease or aids and this greatly skews how they live.

 

[mattpegher]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

I often think it can get pretty cretin here in rural NJ. Sorry to harp on the typo but I got little chuckle.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

If, If, If, tons of ifs based on extremely low chances. OP didn't mention swine. Like the others, sure it COULD be a world-changer, but chances are pretty darn low. Hysteria has kept its progression in check, but it definitely crosses the cry-wolf line, too. The problem is the average person has no idea how to assimilate what they're hearing and understand how it really should impact their lives. I bet you most people don't have a clue how many people die each year from the flu or cancer or heart disease or aids and this greatly skews how they live.

Perhaps I'm out of touch with the US media (considering I'm in Canada and get almost all my news from the net), I'll just take your word that American media are a bunch of fear mongers. While I have seen over hyping in Canadian news, it is usually before they know what is going on, once they do it's toned down.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: mattpegher

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

I often think it can get pretty cretin here in rural NJ. Sorry to harp on the typo but I got little chuckle.

Go eat me you grammar nazi.

 

[mattpegher]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy

Originally posted by: mattpegher

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
OP, I don't know about where you live but west nile is a SERIOUS concern in cretin places in Canada and has resulted in a number of deaths. Go and totally ignore the precautions and education of the public that have helped reduce the cases and just go "but look at how few have died from it".

The other two bugs have the potential of the Spanish flu. Perhaps the media is over hyping the current danger it poses, but should the right mutation occur and we (health organization of X country) are not ready to spot it then be ready to lose family members.

Next you're going to say SARS was nothing but media hype. If that bug had gotten lose we'd be royally screwed.

I often think it can get pretty cretin here in rural NJ. Sorry to harp on the typo but I got little chuckle.

Go eat me you grammar nazi.

Don't be so sensitive, I thought it was funny thats all.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: mattpegher

Swine flu, avian flu, west nile virus. I wonder what the media will latch onto next to sell there ratings and boost their advertising dollars.

Give up on your pathetic whining. Swine flu, avian flu, west nile virus are real health threats. On those issues, the press was performing its historical service to inform people about them, and because they did, lives were probably saved, and the spread and the negative impacts of these diseases were probably reduced.

"State of fear" my ass! It's better than a state of ignorance. Would you rather be uninformed about potential threats that could be averted ameliorated? :roll:

 

[mattpegher]

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: mattpegher

Swine flu, avian flu, west nile virus. I wonder what the media will latch onto next to sell there ratings and boost their advertising dollars.

Give up on your pathetic whining. Swine flu, avian flu, west nile virus are real health threats. On those issues, the press was performing its historical service to inform people about them, and because they did, lives were probably saved, and the spread and the negative impacts of these diseases were probably reduced.

"State of fear" my ass! It's better than a state of ignorance. Would you rather be uninformed about potential threats that could be averted ameliorated? :roll:

I have seen hundreds of cases of flu this year, first the annual flu then a resurgence of infuenza a and b along with the swine flu. I have sent about a dozen samples to the CDC. None have come back swine flu. Some of those patients were critically ill, with regular flu. On the other hand, I have seen hundreds of people with upper respiratory symptoms deathly afraid that they have swine flu and are going to die. Many with very early,often a few hours, of symptoms.
This utilizes health care services in excess of prudent public health.

The job of the news is to inform, not scare. A responsible journalist would report all the facts and give a realistic portrayal of the risk. This is totally foriegn to current crop of journalist. And very little time was spent on the importance of good viral illness prevention containment and care.