Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Swine flu standing down - it's about time


Well...finally we are starting to stand down. Kudos to the MOH for taking this brave decision. It was an over-reaction, but perhaps a necessary one. Being able to recognize it as such is critically important to avoid as Minister Khaw pointed out, 'flu fatigue', or being seen as 'crying wolf''.

In TODAY today, there is a reprint of an article from The Guardian entitled 'There is No Known Antidote for Panic' by Simon Jenkins, which raises some interesting issues. Suggest you go read it.

In a free market world there are all kinds of lobbies out there which have less than noble missions. People want to sell newspaper, medicine, medical equipment, thermal scanners....I think you have gotten my point. People actually have vested interests in fanning a panic, in this case a pandemic panic. Think of the masks seller, thermometer sellers, thermal scanner sellers....and the Tamiflu sellers? Not to mention the research labs trying to get research grants to make vaccines against the flu virus that keeps changing its disguise?

It's hard to separate truth from chaff nowadays.

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