Here a scare, there a scare, everywhere a scare

I liken the MRSA media attention now to the recent SARS scare, on-going Influenza A Virus subtype H5N1 (a/k/a Avian Flu Virus) scare, as well as... the West Nile Virus scare, Eastern Equine Encephalitis scare, Marburg virus scare, Ebola hemorrhagic fever scare, Lassa fever Scare, Legionnaires' Disease scare, Hantaviruses scares, ad infinitum.

What's often missing from the media coverage associated with these "scares" is the relative level of risk associated with actually contracting these diseases. When you contract of these bugs, it's serious and no doubt about it. But your odds of actually exhibiting a symptomatic response from the bugs are quite another issue.

Obviously, the media sensationalizes the "story" so that it will sell. It's not a bad thing that they capture a large audience's attention so that it's made aware of the issue, but they need to improve their characterization of the risks associated with the issue. I don't know if I'd tell them to perform certain acts on themselves, but the media should be prompted to better temper their reports.

by Tom Murphy (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1360 comments) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 10:24:57 AM
 

Brother, that is what they do!

The "Lamestream media" incites hysteria about everything they report!  we heard about how we were all going to die in a heat wave, a hurricane, some sort of super bug, or some stupid politician's dumb legislation!

 they have this absurd notion that if they don't talk about something as if it is going to be a disaster, then nobody will watch their broadcast...

 Well, they are creating a self fulfilling prophecy, because nobody is believing them, and now nobody is watching them either! 

so anyway, the pharmaceutical industry is liking the action, so they have THAT going for them...

Ciao, CZ 

by steve scheetz (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 439 comments) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 10:57:04 AM
 

Manipulation of fear or flight depresss cognition

It is well known that when we are  scared we don't think well.  Our fight or flight response generates all that nasty old adrenaline and suppresses our ability to critically analyse our situation.  Just think: if you are about to get hit by a car, what does your body do--it gears up to get the hell out of Dodge.  It does not begin an analysis on speed, wind and resistance.

We are being programmed, folks.  Media manipulation, the hyper-crisis mode which every bug fart and worm turd generate these days is distracting us from more pressing issues.

We are going into hysterics on 'out of control germs', vicious viruses and allegedly deadly diseases, events which have such a miniscule affect on the population as a whole, that they may as well be non-existent.

Meanwhile, the things that are killing us (see Aspartame article) that are in our diet, in our environment and, in US, courtesy of a compliant govenment and non-regulating regulatory agencies, continue to kill, warp our genes, create hoads of babies and children with diabetes, ADHD, autism and who knows what else.

As long as we play two year old, short-attention spanned numbnuts, 'they' will continue to distract us and we will remain clueless and misdirected.

by M. Davis (37 articles, 1 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 131 comments) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 11:57:26 AM
 

well here are a few more idiotic school closings...

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=7285784

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=63992

by BenMarbleMD (18 articles, 0 quicklinks, 172 diaries, 259 comments) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 1:58:09 PM
 

In other words...

...closing down 24 schools in Kentucky was over kill and did nothing more than give the kids a day off.

So like the scare-you headline in the Los Angeles Daily News about a microbe common to lakes and ponds in New Mexico that likes to attack young boys in particular.  Apparently the little devils swim up the nostrils of anyone putting his face in the water, and breast stroke directly to the brain for hearty meals until the victim is dead in about six days.

Sounded like something out of the X-Files.

If that weren't enough to scare you, they said it's spread to a couple of other western states.  The article made it sound like it was running rampant in epidemic proportions.

Coincidently, I was talking to Doc Judy on the Big Island, who lived in New Mexico for a while and said, pish it's been around forever.

This was a one-time article with no follow up, and was more than likely taken at face value off a press release. 

That's called lazyass journalism.

by Sandy Sand (130 articles, 0 quicklinks, 153 diaries, 1174 comments) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 4:54:44 PM
 

And aaaaaaaaaaway we go!

They're off and running, folks.  The headline writers, ratings whores and moron mongers.  It's crunch time--Osama's putting us to sleep, Obama's getting trounced by the Hillary Machine, the Mad Emperor is scaring us to death with his naked nitwitism and the Machine wants to keep us too scared to think.  Welcome to the New World Disorder.

What really blows my mind--in these rare moments when I'm near one of those alien mind control devices---the thing you earthlings call a television, is what you people are scared of and how many times your masters have to keep scaring you.  As if you aren't adrenaline poisoned enough.

You are scared of fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, microbes, germs, particulate matter, radiation, aliens from the skies, aliens from furrin shores, and yourselves.  No doubt about it: most sane beings avoid the third mudball from the sun,

by M. Davis (37 articles, 1 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 131 comments) on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 10:04:45 PM