Monday, April 27, 2009

Compulsory medical blog swine flu posting

To tell you the truth, I haven't been following the swine flu epidemic (pandemic?) too closely (too busy trying to finish up that dissertation), so I'm not going to comment on it much (see here and here for the important, life-saving info). One thing that this highlights, though, is how easy it is for the media to scare the public. I'm not saying that it's not warranted now, but the media's tendency for wild speculation will probably end up making things worse, rather than better.

Update: My drug dealing wife (pharmacy student) says that lots of health professionals were calling in today asking for prescriptions of oseltamavir for their family members... lame.

5 comments:

  1. I feel like the media reporting could be worse, but I agree that if it's going to blossom into an outright panic, it's going to largely be the fault of the media. But I'm hopeful that we are nipping this one in the bud before it gets too out of control.

    I think it's interesting that almost all of the blogs that you track in your side bar currently have as their top posts something about swine flu. Us scientists and medical professionals are SO predictable.

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  2. yeah, we must have some chip implanted in our brains that, at the sign of any trouble makes us think the same thing.

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  3. I think it's blog self preservation.
    I've noticed that the comments on mine tend to reflect whatever everyone is scared shitless about.

    I was hoping to head off some of the fecal incontinence with a calming down post! Then I realised people were getting to my blog by searching for "homeopathic swine flu prophylaxis", and more writing ensued.

    I'm sure every medi/science blogger has that "homeopathic swine flu" moment before addressing panic like this...

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  4. Yeah, I guess better they find you then what they were looking for.

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  5. Take good care everyone. We must be aware of what happens in our world. :) Thanks

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