Dispensing rumours

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Dispensing rumours

Wednesday, 13 May 2009 09:32

Dispensing rumours

Había menos gente de lo normal en el bar this morning cuando fui a desayunar. I'm not sure whether that was because I was slightly later than usual, or whether everyone's avoiding lugares públicos where they may come into contact with coughs and sneezes.

If it's the latter, I blame the enfermera who did my blood test last week. I was impressed with how eficiente the procedure was, but I'll admit to being less than impressed by la actitud del personal. While the woman took the blood sample - leaving a bruise - she was chatting blithely to her compañera. "Mi hijo volvió de Méjico hace diez días." Which is all very well, but then she continued, "Le tenía que dar Ibuprofeno, porque tenía la garganta muy mal..."

So there I was, having my blood taken by a woman who was gaily explaining how her son's just got back from Mexico with flu symptoms. OK, she then went on to say she'd checked up on the incubation period and it was "menos de una semana" and the lad had been back for ten days, but even so, it wasn't exactly reassuring. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it was irresponsible. And the sort of comentario that if overheard could provoke a panic, if not a pandemic.

The public certainly seem willing to fear the worst about the virus: for the last week or more, the "most popular stories" on the BBC website all seem to have been about swine flu.

The fact that the death toll is now actually dropping is an interesting phenomenon, though not, I imagine, associated with the "outbreak of zombism caused by swine flu virus mutation", a very neatly-designed BBC-lookalike hoax page which was misleading people on the web hace unos días.

Actualmente, los expertos seem to be of the opinion that the ‘hamdemic’, is not as serious as la epidemia de gripe aviar of recent years. And las estadísticas publicadas by the World Health Organisation show that there’s been a total of just 257 deaths from bird flu since 2003. That averages out at fewer than 50 deaths a year.

In the U.S.A., in a typical flu season, 36,000 people die; en el mundo entero, some medio millón de muertes each year are attributable to la gripe. During Semana Santa this year, there were 48 muertes en carretera in Spain. And everyone was congratulating themselves on how low the figure was in comparison to años anteriores.

So, however triste each individual swine-flu-associated death is for the family and friends, and however preocupante the speed at which the virus seems to have spread, it might not warrant the blind panic with which some people are greeting it. And aquí en Europa it certainly doesn't seem to warrant the newly-named practice of "social distancing". Mind you, I did enjoy breakfast en un bar tranquilo.

The zombism story can be read at: http://www.bouncewith.me.uk/europe/8027043.htm. Do remember that it is a hoax.