this little piggy...

Have you heard the news? There's some sort of new flu. It's a secret - only a few people know about it. It goes by pig flu" or "swine flu". Oh, you did hear about it? A million other people did too? And you say it's all over the news? Hmm...maybe that's why I saw that picture of a person with a surgical mask on msnbc today. And I simply thought there was a new profession of traveling surgeons.

Of course I jest - swine flu info is everywhere you turn. I even saw a link to an article about the flu on the weather channel. Pollen alert on there...sure. But what in the heck do sunny skies have to do with pigs? If there's a thunderstorm will flu germs come tumbling from the sky as people sneeze into the air, boogers mix with moisture, moisture to clouds, clouds to rain on my head? In any case, as we all know, the hysteria is everywhere.

I need to be honest that they've nabbed me though. I've been checking msnbc (my news site of choice) regularly. Where have the latest cases sprung up? Why are people dying from it? What are the symptoms? What should employers and caregivers do? As far as I'm concerned (or as far as I've been sold to believe), this is much worse then the bird flu and SARS. It has to be. I have no idea what a SAR is and bird seem harmless. But pigs? Well they're cute but dirty. What better vehicle for disease?

I think my sensitivity to this one is that I have Alexis now. I'm not a bubble-baby type. Let her get exposed to germs...she'll be fine. But this doesn't seem like your regular bug. Interestingly enough, they claim that 20-30 year olds seem to be the hardest hit. Apparently having a healthy immune system doesn't work in our favor. I guess I need to start breaking myself down with junk food, lack of exercise, and maybe some smoking to get that immune system damaged. But in any case, I fear for Alexis more then myself, which I guess is how this parenting thing goes.

So while I know that the mass hysteria around this almost-pandemic super disease is probably somewhat unfounded, I'll still err on the fact that you never know, and extra hand washing or two plus some vigilant tissue usage can't hurt. I need to remember the killer bees that we all knew were going to kill all of us in North America as they migrated up from Africa or somewhere that we could blame for endangering us. I have no idea where those bees went, but I don't recall any sort of swarm. Let's hope the pig flu is the new fake killer bee, just with a snout versus wings.


PS - yet another reason the Pooh clan is dangerous to your health...