Re: Bird Flu Epidemic Outbreak Is Very Probable Currently, Specialists Consider
... Few month after that, this phantomatic awareness was by people quoted rubish, and gave more arguments to the wast med./off. platea to stated it scaremongering.
We can see an example of this kind of thinking in an article of "The News&Observer" published on:
http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/768430.html
and presented on "FluWiki" yesterday:
• North Carolina:
Must we be very afraid
________
The analyze of some statements:
"... After conjuring this dire scenario, the public service announcement offered some pretty tame advice: Cover your mouth when you cough and your nose when you sneeze, wash your hands often. Stay home when you're sick. The most apocalyptic suggestion was that you "stock your pantry with food that has a long shelf life and does not need to be cooked.""
Here is interesting to see how a "very little" sign of awareness transmited through an usual masses-media vector (radio) seems to the "Staff Writer" like an
apocalyptic suggestion, when it is an quite normal suggestion, but if the "writer" are not used to read various scientific publications, it is not.
""It's marketing," explained Debbie Crane, public affairs director for the state Department of Health and Human Services. "You've got to grab people's attention.""
And it's ok, because in our ultra-mediatic world, it must be cutted off a little bit of attention.
"Translation: People accept the seasonal flu as a fact of life, and to persuade them to protect themselves against it, you have to frighten them with images of pandemic pandemonium. "
This is an obviously missinterpretation of facts, because the shots for protection of the seasonal flu have not any connection with the protection from the pandemic flu.
"The campaign may seem high pitched, but it reflects a basic fact of life: If you're aiming for America's ear, forget the head and shoot straight for the gut. If you want to cut through the mass media cacophony, let cataclysm be your carnival barker.
The airwaves are full of blow-dried Chicken Littles."
It's a classical "it's rubbish" atitude, mixed with an incompetence to separate the "chicken" illness from an possible novel "human" pandemic.
"Cable news channels beam constant reports of "extreme weather," school lockdowns and highway car chases. Genuine challenges turn into visions of Armageddon: "Terrorist plots! Terminator infections! Nuclear threats!"
The message: "Be afraid. Be very afraid!""
Well, if "you are not born yesterday" those are real possibilities, if you look at the math. theory of possibilities.
Seems that "the writer" lives in another world where these things cannot happen (maybe an paralel one?)
"Catastrophe, however, is like a drug. The more you get, the more you need. News outlets and political leaders must relentlessly ramp up their warnings to grab our attention."
After many years of no leader warnings, finaly some situational news was backed up by the leaders, and than stamped "rubish" without facts by him.
"... age-old questions about whether it is proper to twist facts in the name of a higher truth."
The twisted facts was the previous non-mention of the problem.
"... leaders have used doomsday images to get people to change their ways."
Is it beter to leave "the sheeps" to their destiny without try to change the path?
"...
fear mongering is increasingly alarming in the modern world. Before the 20th century, most Americans lived in rural areas. Their lives were defined by things they could see, hear and touch -- the land and their neighbors.
Technological breakthroughs -- from radio and television to the Internet and cheap air travel -- greatly expanded our world. The global is now local, as far-flung issues shape our lives.
Of course, we are still rooted in our little postage stamps of native soil. So much of the information we receive about this wider world comes secondhand from news organizations and political leaders who know that bad news sells."
"The standard mass-media news (TV, radio, newspaper) sell very little about a pandemic, because they produced little news till today - the mass-news are only from the internet, without payment. The political leaders like more good news."
"The result is a widening gap between how Americans view something they have firsthand knowledge of -- their own lives -- and the wider world described to them by others.
Barraged with incessant reports of catastrophe, planetary meltdowns, rampant crime and raging pandemics, Americans see trouble.
These dismal images certainly grab our attention. But by distorting reality, the fear mongers make it harder for us to understand and respond to the very real problems they're squawking about."
We saw clearly that when "the reader", or "the writer" hadn't read enaugh scientific literature about the thema, they tend to clasified it like:
"distortion of reality", and "fear-mongers".
The writer seems to be not aware that he must added to the actual very real problems, another one - infectious diseases - are they XTB, flu, MRSA, or others.
The obviously changing weather (look at the recent storms) worsen that.
"That's nothing to sneeze at."
I hope that a pandemic of any sort never happen, but if it does, will be a good policy to "the writer" to be very careful that then no one sneeze at him... (read on "The mask of the red death", E.A.P.)
________
The whole story:
J. Peder Zane:
Must we be very afraid
<!-- /components/story/story_default.comp -->
By J. Peder Zane, Staff Writer
The sun is shining and the birds are winging as my Mazda purrs down Capital Boulevard. Suddenly, the candy-colored music on the radio stops. An ominous voice intones:
"In 1918, thousands of North Carolinians died as pandemic flu swept the world. There is no pandemic flu today, but experts say it is just a matter of time. That's why the North Carolina Division of Public Health is working to help you and your family prepare."
Talk about your mood breaker.
In the history of health catastrophes, the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic ranks right up there with the Black Death. This virulent bug killed 40 million to 100 million people, dwarfing the death toll from World War I.
Imagine how the dinosaurs felt when that asteroid crashed to Earth -- kaboom! That's your mind-set when pandemic flu strikes. And it is just a matter of time.
After conjuring this dire scenario, the public service announcement offered some pretty tame advice: Cover your mouth when you cough and your nose when you sneeze, wash your hands often. Stay home when you're sick. The most apocalyptic suggestion was that you "stock your pantry with food that has a long shelf life and does not need to be cooked." (Beans again!)
The spot seemed more than a tad alarmist, an attempt to scare up interest in familiar tips as cold and flu season approaches. Yes, scientists believe that pandemic flu will strike again, but its severity and timing (one, 10, 25 years or more?) are uncertain.
More to the point, seasonal flu is scary enough. About 36,000 Americans will die from it this year. So why the end-of-times radio spot?
"It's marketing," explained Debbie Crane, public affairs director for the state Department of Health and Human Services. "You've got to grab people's attention."
Translation: People accept the seasonal flu as a fact of life, and to persuade them to protect themselves against it, you have to frighten them with images of pandemic pandemonium.
The campaign may seem high pitched, but it reflects a basic fact of life: If you're aiming for America's ear, forget the head and shoot straight for the gut. If you want to cut through the mass media cacophony, let cataclysm be your carnival barker.
The airwaves are full of blow-dried Chicken Littles.
Cable news channels beam constant reports of "extreme weather," school lockdowns and highway car chases. Genuine challenges turn into visions of Armageddon: "Terrorist plots! Terminator infections! Nuclear threats!"
The message: "Be afraid. Be very afraid!"
Catastrophe, however, is like a drug. The more you get, the more you need. News outlets and political leaders must relentlessly ramp up their warnings to grab our attention.
Consider the Nobel Peace Prize shared last month by Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The New York Times, in a story headlined "2 Winners, and 2 Approaches to Spreading the Word on Climate," contrasted the IPCC's measured voice of peer-reviewed research with Gore's "brimstone-laden warnings of an unfolding 'planetary emergency.'" The article quoted scientists who were "queasy" about Gore's more alarmist claims, but they also applauded him for focusing public attention on a crucial issue.
Gore's approach raises age-old questions about whether it is proper to twist facts in the name of a higher truth. It is also part of an American tradition -- stretching back at least to the Puritan preacher Cotton Mather -- whereby leaders have used doomsday images to get people to change their ways.
Because the fear factor is not new, we shouldn't pine for a nonexistent golden age when people looked at life head-on. Its long pedigree, however, shouldn't make us accept it with a shrug.
The idea of progress means we can conquer even the most entrenched practices -- run into many slaves lately?
At the risk of sounding alarmist, fear mongering is increasingly alarming in the modern world. Before the 20th century, most Americans lived in rural areas. Their lives were defined by things they could see, hear and touch -- the land and their neighbors.
Technological breakthroughs -- from radio and television to the Internet and cheap air travel -- greatly expanded our world. The global is now local, as far-flung issues shape our lives.
Of course, we are still rooted in our little postage stamps of native soil. So much of the information we receive about this wider world comes secondhand from news organizations and political leaders who know that bad news sells.
The result is a widening gap between how Americans view something they have firsthand knowledge of -- their own lives -- and the wider world described to them by others.
According to recent polls, the vast majority of Americans are satisfied with their jobs (86 percent), content with their family income (76 percent) and convinced that their lot will improve in the next five years (62 percent).
This optimism ends at their front door. The Pew Research Center found that 68 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and 60 percent think the next generation will be worse off. Bottom line, according to Pew: While 65 percent of Americans are satisfied with their own lives, only 25 percent are happy with the state of the nation.
Of course, personal circumstances don't necessarily mirror the nation's condition. But the links are strong enough that this divergence has at least as much to do with perception as it does with reality.
Barraged with incessant reports of catastrophe, planetary meltdowns, rampant crime and raging pandemics, Americans see trouble.
These dismal images certainly grab our attention. But by distorting reality, the fear mongers make it harder for us to understand and respond to the very real problems they're squawking about.
That's nothing to sneeze at.
peder.zane@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4773
, but I must say that independent of translation bugs, now there are so much suspected "fast dying pneumonias" that is enough for a reasonable suspect of what is going on.
