Between twenty thousand and forty thousand people die every year in the USA from flu or complications of flu (pneumonia). These deaths are caused by the usual types of flu viruses we all know and hate –the ones that go around every year. I repeat: normal old flu viruses kill between twenty thousand and forty thousand people a year in the USA. Even using the smallest of those two numbers, that is an average of fifty-four people a day. I only mention this because I had the opportunity to be exposed to some television news today.

Holy cow. Panic much?

Mexico may or may not have a problem, but at the moment, I am tending to believe the death statistics for flu and flu-related complications for both the USA and Mexico will remain almost exactly the same as every other year, when all is said and done. People do know there have been several months during a number of the last few years in the USA when the death rate for standard old A and B flu types has been above the epidemic level, don’t they? I don’t recall hearing much talk of stockpiling food (and firearms), buying extra body bags, or the world coming to an end. In fact, I don’t recall hearing anything about it at all beyond perhaps the occasional mention on the local news that flu season was really bad and strong suggestions that everyone go get a flu shot. No panic on the scale I have witnessed on the 24-hour news channels, that’s for certain.

The talking heads on the television news are –to put it as politely as possible– completely f*cking ratings hungry. If that’s not the excuse, then I can only assume they have all gone stark raving mad. At any rate, they should not be paid much attention to concerning Swine Flu … because it’s not a pandemic, it’s barely an epidemic, and an average of 54 people a day die in the USA every day from flu and flu-related complications due to flu viruses that don’t even have proper names. Fear sells just about as well as sex does these days, and boy, the TV news talking heads want you to be afraid … and glue your eyes to their channel. Don’t turn away! You might miss the next pointless and fear-mongering minute-by-minute update about the newest case of one type of flu!

Jon Stewart did a good bit on it tonight on The Daily Show. It’s worth watching, except for the last thirty seconds or so which are completely stupid.

My advice is to please –PLEASE– turn off the television. Put away the panic. Take the usual flu-season precautions.

Everyone should be taking the usual flu-season precautions all the time. I am always amazed that people don’t^†. Did no one’s mother teach them to not share drinks or utensils (unless you really love the person), wash their hands after touching things that other people have touched and before touching themselves or other people, to sneeze or blow one’s nose into a tissue and toss it in the trash right away, and to stay away from other people when sick (so you don’t infect other people or catch something else as well while your immune system is taking a beating)?

I do these things all the time. It’d be really great if everyone did these things all the time, then the one time I forget and scratch my nose while at the grocery store, I wouldn’t catch the latest bug going around. I’ve never gotten to the point of obsession with germs to carry around (or even use) hand sanitizers of any sort, but I am always aware that every surface I touch outside of my own home is covered in germs I may have never been exposed to before or to which I have no immunity^††. The easiest way to avoid becoming ill is to wash my face and hands as soon as I get home from being somewhere there are a lot of people (or even wash them while being at a public event of some sort). Sometimes I even change my clothes or take a quick shower when I get home, if there’s something in particular going around in my area infecting lots of people. I’m careful about my own sneezing and coughing as well. On the off chance I have to sneeze or cough into my hand rather than my elbow or a tissue (a hand is better than nothing), I am careful to not touch other things people may touch or other people, until I can wash my hands. I stay home when I am sick, and I even stop kissing my husband and sharing our communal mug-o-water. Everyone should be doing this stuff all the time, for the good of themselves and everyone else.

My advice? Begin to think of germs as invisible mud.

When I am working out in the garden, my hands get visibly dirty. Often, they are downright muddy. All the same, I don’t stop and wash them every time I get a spec of mud on them. I might very well work for some hours with much mud on my hands and under my fingernails. I don’t want mud all over myself, so I don’t touch myself and touch my clothing as little as possible (if at all). I contain the mud and dirt to my hands, and when I am washing up to come into the house, aside from any sweating I did, my hands are the only thing that has been exposed to dirt and mud and need to be washed. If there is mud on my clothing, I change clothing. If I somewhere have gotten mud on my face or body, I take a shower. Simple as that.

Now imagine germs are invisible mud, and as you go through your day touching things and interacting with people and the environment, this invisible mud is getting ground into the pores of your hands and pushed up under your fingernails. Your hands are just covered in invisible mud. When you touch your face, the mud is getting into your eyes, your nose, your mouth. When you scratch that bug bite until it bleeds or pop that zit, you are rubbing the invisible germ mud into your wounds. I guarantee, if the germs you acquired from a simple trip to the grocery store suddenly became as visible as mud, you’d wash your hands more often and stop touching your face. You don’t want to eat mud, do you? You wouldn’t rub mud into your eyes, would you? Of course not. So why would you want to do the same with germs?

Anyway, the panic level about the Swine Flu right now is really somewhat unwarranted. Seriously. The media circus is bullsh*t meant to keep you tuned into the fear-mongering and watching those advertisements.

Since I started this post last night and this morning when I sat down to finish it, someone in the media posted a story agreeing with my notion that the panic is all for naught right now: A Vaccine Needed for Bad Statistics. Go read it, and then take my advice on the “invisible mud” will you? I’d really, really like it if more people didn’t leave every crappy germ they have been exposed to all day on the public surfaces I can’t avoid touching, and please be courteous and clean with your sneezing and coughing. Your mother may not have taught you how to avoid illnesses or making others ill, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now!

1. † It isn’t like things that can make one sick don’t do so when it’s sunny and warm outside. It’s always flu season somewhere on the planet, and people do travel long distances a lot these days. It is entirely possible to catch the flu or any number of other things in the middle of summer. So why aren’t people careful all the time?! [↩]
2. †† Not that my house is some sort of pristine and germ-free environment. It isn’t. All the surfaces of my house have germs on them as well, but we live with them, so they don’t make us sick. Your health mileage in my house may vary. [↩]