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| Home Front: Tech |
| Flu and Stupidity |
| 2005-10-05 |
| (original material) This winter, the flu season will come as it usually does, and most likely with a typical mild flu strain, not the avian flu. There will also be many strains of winter colds about. Thus, it represents a "dry run" of the avian flu that can be very educational. If you typically get the flu or colds when they comes around, it might be a good time to reevaluate *how* you catch the disease, and try to avoid catching it this year by modifying your behavior. If you succeed, consider it a good sign that you are at lower risk of catching the avian flu. If you *do* catch a cold or the flu, consider it your final warning. When the flu comes, and it will, past a doubt, several things not directly related to the disease will figure into how it affects us. First among these variables is stupidity. America is an underpopulated country. It is also remarkably hygienic. It is also very educated and very educatable. When new information is made available, it is quickly disseminated. In other words, when prepared it shouldn't suffer very many casualties at all from a disaster like the influenza. Countering all of this is stupidity. Individuals who are so arrogant, stubborn, superstitious, undisciplined, and immature that they will get sick despite the best efforts of others to save their lives. The ability of Americans to adapt, escape, evade, and counter disaster was just demonstrated by hurricane Katrina. But there were those adamantly *refused* to take themselves, or allow themselves to be taken, out of harm's way. And, importantly, in doing so they willingly not only risked their own lives, but the lives of others who tried to save them. Katrina only demonstrated one kind of stupidity, however. The influenza will demostrate other, different kinds. One of the first groups of people who will voluntarily expose themselves to the disease is classical. People who cluster together and hope to pray the disease away. But this number can be expanded to any group whose members cannot overcome their instinctual desire for "defense in numbers". People who cannot stand to be physically apart from their community, from groups of people. Those who are involuntarily forced to cluster together, such as prisoners and soldiers, also suffer terrible losses, but this is not directly their fault. A second group are those individuals who refuse to modify their "lifestyle" to fit changing circumstances. People so stubborn in their routines that they unneccesarily expose themselves and others to the disease. Unwilling to stay away from work when there are sick people around, they also come in to work when they themselves are sick. They refuse to modify their behavior even when advised to do so by knowledgeable authorities. Lifestyles are complex, and in many people it takes a drastic shock to force them to reevaluate almost everything that they do, to discard 90% of their ordinary day solely to protect their life. They become automatons. A third, much smaller group are those who generally understand the problem, but whose responses to it are wildly inappropriate. For example, Americans can be very independent-minded, and many might try to "run" a quarantine checkpoint past armed guards. Others might become anti-social to the point of violence, to protect themselves and their families. Others may panic and do irrational acts, such as burning down a "plague house". Others insist on wanting to "help", with no training or professional expertise, inserting themselves in situations where the best they can do is spread the illness. But all of these are extreme examples of bad behaviors in the middle of a disease disaster. There is nothing that can be done about them ahead of time, and those who engage in this behavior offer themselves up to the sickness when the time is ripe. Several times now, I've listed means by which an individual can sensibly avoid catching the disease itself, the most important of which is sanitizing the hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when out in public or around those who are. If any of you who read this take to carrying around a small bottle with you, using it on your hands, door knobs, grocery store carts, and things like that, please note if you make it through the winter without illness. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |