Time to say 'I told you so ?'

Article on BBC website today, trying to figure out if we have any
lessons to learn from history in the dealing with outbreaks or
pandemics.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8187300.stm

Is there anything to learn from the way that the press has hyped up the
nation to fever pitch about an illness, that worldwide to date hasn't
killed as many people as die falling down stairs in the UK every year ?
Hmmm. Let me think.

Another article reports that the incidences of 'Swine Flu' are slowing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8176552.stm

Apart from the obvious fact that this was to be expected when the
schools broke up.. what's new ? Maybe all those handwash gels littering
every single open surface in every work place, or maybe it's the 'if
you're ill, stay at home - self quarantine'. Maybe it's just that the
virus isn't anywhere near as dangerous as we were 'told' by the media,
and doesn't pose the risk to most normal people ?

Maybe this halt in the spread of the virus, is temporary, and we'll see
a resurgence when the kids go back to school, maybe things will peak
more as we get into winter, and people start spending more time in
closer confined areas.

Maybe we won't be counting the fact that of the 12,000 people that die
from seasonal flu every year, how many of them could be saved if we made
this much fuss of it ? Why do we accept so many people dying EVERY
YEAR ? Are these people somehow not worthy of our attention, or the
airtime of the television networks or those precious column inches in
the press ?

As sad and tragic as the deaths around the world from this virus are,
how are those victims any more important than the thousands of people
dying every year? Doesn't our (dare I jinx it?) temporary success at
fighting the spread of H1N1 just go to prove what is possible if the
will and the money is there ? So how as a society, can we look the
relatives of those that die every winter from seasonal flu in the eye,
knowing that we really could have drastically improved their chances of
survival ?

Says a lot about us I think. Some people say that we define ourselves by
what or who we take with us on life's journey. Actually, I think the
opposite is true, and we define ourselves by our choices of what to lose
or who to leave behind. How do we define ourselves by the people that we
allow to suffer and die ?