Weapons of Mass Hysteria

Swine Flu Pandemic for Dummies

by Howard Melamed May 1, 2009

I just landed at JFK on my way to Barcelona. As I am walking towards the gate, a man in a grey suite with a nice looking tie is carrying a small briefcase. The scene would be normal if not for the white surgical mask that he is wearing. He is holding a cell phone up to his ear and he is talking normally to someone on the other end, that is no doubt equally protected because germs do not transmit over the airwaves.  Or do they?  I am sort of waiting for Joe Biden, that pool of  diarrhea-like opinions when it comes to all sort of things he knows nothing about, to say that he will not be communicating with anyone through the cell phone as he might get Swine Flu from the radio transmission.

As an amateur mathematician, ( even though I hold a degree in Engineering from a reputable university ) , I worked out the numbers on this swine flu stuff.   There are approximately 312 cases of swine flu in the world reported,with a total of 12 deaths.   The one death that was reported in the United States was from a Mexican child who came over the border last week.   NO AMERICAN TO DATE HAS DIED from this flu.  None. Not one.  Maybe there will be one. Then we should say one.  Even with this figure,  the amount of people that have died on a percentage basis is 0.0000052 % .  Wining the lotto you have a chance of  .0000027 % .  In other words, you have 5 times more chance of hitting the lottery.  Did you win this week?

Lightning ?   .00005 percent chance of getting struck by lighting.  In other words you have a 9.6 better chance of getting hit by lighting than catching the swine flu.  Diarrhea 14% chance of getting it in any year. Now that's a weapon!

So why the panic?  I believe that we are seeing the rise of weapons of mass hysteria used by our government to make us believe in a crisis that doesn't exist so that they can solve it to look good.   Creating wag the dog scenario's are nothing new.  We see it all the time. In south Florida we witness hurricane hysteria, when we are always lead to believe weeks in advance of an impending doom of a hurricane.  Our TV news coverage can't wait for these events, as they go into crisis mode.  Our politicians get on the TV and tell us how they have everything in control, and that there is nothing to worry about since they are in charge.  The hurricane doesn't hit. Everyone goes home disappointed.

With our new government in power,  creating a weapon of mass hysteria is great considering that they can simply move peoples attention from the reality of the real problems we face to focus on something that they can actually fix. Or at least...appear to fix.  You can only fix something if it is really a problem to start off with.  Fix the economy...now that can't be done.  Create Mass Hysteria by telling people of a Pandemic ...Well,  the Pandemic can be fixed easily as telling people its over and we have things under control.

I didn't even know what Pandemic was until Swine flu.  Now I believe the word comes from the word Panic and non academic.  Putting it together and you get Pandemic.   The same way that you put the words 'you swine' together with Flu and get the word ' Government helping us' .

Now the current Obama government is not the originator of Weapons of Mass Hysteria.  It started years ago when everyone in Hollywood was suspected to be a communist.  Then there was the worry of impeding weapons of mass destruction, where we were told of a possible assault on the United States was imminent coming from Iraq.   Bush at that time made a mistake.  HIs staff members told him it was Iran we had to worry about, and he thought they meant Iraq.  "What's the difference" he said " N or Q .....it's not about the letter of the law!" he added.

Creating hysteria and testing the public came about again after our government decided to fly a large jet over New York near some tall buildings.  They told us that it was a mistake,  a photo shoot as they put it. Actually it was a test....that's right... A test to see how we would react to a weapon of mass hysteria.  We failed the test.  People panicked in the streets,  beating up dark skinned individuals while at the same time wearing surgical masks that keep their skin protected against the sunlight. 

Then again,  when President Obama was on TV telling us that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better , creating once more a hysteria in wall street with the stock market reacting going down to 6500 , he became a proponent of the Weapons of Mass Hysteria, bearing it down on the American people once more.

What's next? Only time will tell for the American population that seems to be berated with weapons of mass hysteria of all forms.  Meanwhile, I am boarding a plane no doubt with a bunch of people that will be wearing surgical masks to Barcelona, a place where most Americans think is in Mexico....obviously.