First of all, I don't understand why it's called the swine flu or if it has anything to do with pigs. I guess people just want a label, like the chicken pox. Moreover, it just boggles my mind that some countries are killing pigs, I mean what kind of ludicrous morons would do that?! Nonetheless, people are eating less pork now and washing hands more, which is a good thing.
Second of all, I think that people really needn't overreact or worry about the flu to such a great extent. Not that it's not a problem, I'm just thinking that the media and government officials are being paranoid and (very) irrational. It seems that the flu came at the right time to distract the world from stressing over the crippling economy. I was going to give more reasons but Dan Ariely actually spit it out perfectly earlier than I did. In his blog, Dan listed three reasons why this is irrational:
1. Because of our limited capacity, we pay attention to current events even if it's not really important.
2. We overweigh new risks relative to comparable risks we are accustomed to.
3. We are suckers when it comes to statistics and we are instead attracted to stories and anecdotes which bias our judgment. We only focus on the few ones who have died from the flu but what about those who were exposed but didn't get sick, or those who got sick and didn't die?
At any rate, I'm just a bit annoyed as I will be traveling in a month. Hope this will be handled in a rational manner soon.
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