Pandemic pandemonium pendejo

Yes, Mexico — the country — is under a “Stage 3 World Health Organization Pandemic Alert” — which means there are a few, or very few, cases of something contagious.   Nationwide, out of a population of 120 million, sixty people have died (1 in 2 million).  In Mexico — the capital of the country — twenty out of the estimated twenty million inhabitants have died of Swine Flu.   And no new cases have been reported in the last day or so.

Of course, the possibility of a flu pandemic SHOULD be taken seriously, and it is.  Schools in Mexico City were closed, and the municipal authorites are recommending sick people stay home and off the subway, but mostly it’s a matter of checking anti-flu medication stockpiles.

The World Health Organization says that Mexico is in pretty good shape. Last year, when we had a small outbreak of diarrhea here during a heat wave, the health department went door to door with information and pedialyte.  Mexican public health services — even under a Secretary of Health who doesn’t begin to approach the stellar level of Julio Frenk — is excellent at dealing with this kind of situation.  The Army (which is supposed to be doing this kind of thing, not acting as policemen) is  assisting in handling health care.

Most of what is going on seems to be panic.  There is a longer flu season than normal (global warming?) and, given the attention focused on Swine Flu, people who just don’t feel well are jumping to the conclusion that they’re infected.

The disease is also being found in the United States, which doesn’t have a system for delivering mass care, which is worrisome.  However, the World Health Organization says that treatment stockpiles should be sufficient to contain any major epidemics in Mexico and the United States.

What isn’t needed is panic.  This photo (from El Universal) was slugged on the on-line site, “penejox.jpg” — in other words, “anonymous asshole”.  Not coughing or sneezing on people when you’re sick is good manners (and a good public health measure), but making a peso (or two for five pesos) off a public health crisis that makes people nervous is pendojosimo of the highest order.