You Know the Media is Blowing Something Out of Proportion When….
You Know the Media is Blowing Something Out of Proportion When….
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Congrats! You’re now infected with swine flu.
I think he deserves influenza. Swine flu isn’t deadly enough.
…Influenza IS swine flu, the original strain.
soylent green IS people!
Wow, the sheer stupidity from that post is phenomenal. You really think we are going to believe that you actually “looked it up”? Also, it takes two things to trump the kill count of the flu, and you think that is nothing.
Stupid, through and through.
Influenza is the general name for the Virus. Swine flu is a type of influenza that infects swine. The current H1N1 is a combination of swine flue, human flu, and avian flu, that all came together in a single host infected with all three.
It’s worse than that… 36,000 annually in the United States, but it’s 250,000 – 500,000 worldwide.
who cares? there more people on this planet destroying it than there are years in the past
…… Huh? Your post has nothing to do with anything.
Also there =/= there’re. Stay in school 12 year old.
…… “They’re”. It’s short for “there are”. “They’re are” doesn’t make sense. Also, “there’re”? Seriously? You need to learn grammar and spelling before you start correcting other peoples’.
Seriously people. They’re = “they are.” That’s what contractions do; they shorten two words. They don’t make up new ones.
The swine flu graphs are getting old. I think it’s time to move on.
I was just about to post the same thing.
No more swine flu/Twilight/Jonas Brothers/Narnia references please…
What else is there…
… Star Trek (old vs. new), X-Men, recent TV show cancellations that I .wanted to stay on (“Life On Mars”, etc.). Plenty to work with,
And Miss California…don’t forget her.
But we’ve already had a couple graphs about Dani.
LIFE ON MARS GOT CANCELLED??? G*D F*CKING DAMMIT THAT’S IT
::throws TV off the roof::
::then shoots it with a .45::
Oh just STFU, folks.
If you don’t like a graph you don’t have to look at it.
What we need is one ultimate graph that combines them all. That will put an end to this.
the Narnia jokes I’ve seen are pretty funny…tho, I agree with you on everything else.
Please, stop the haters. Let people be people. Judge based on talent, not looks or background. Learn about other types of people–and I mean REALLY learn, not ask the nearest random person on the street. Forever and ever, amen (sry, couldn’t resist)
when the dumb ass drive by media moves on, these graphs will get old.
but for now…
LOL
No, they’re old now
Might be old on Graphjam, but I think the news organizations could still benefit by seeing this. They still don’t seem to have the message.
The media already got the message; they just do not care, as they get higher ratings this way.
Yeah, I was watching the news the other day and they did a story on how the media is blowing swine flu out of proportion and causing panic and undue stress to Americans.
Then, not two minutes later, they did a story on how swine flu could become a major epidemic and shut down our economy, free trade, schools, and businesses if they can’t contain it.
WTF.
Yeah, blame it on the media. Last I heard, the TV never forced anyone to panic.
Ever heard of the original broadcast of War of the Worlds? I know it was radio, not TV, but still, close enough.
Only a moron would say crap like this. The media has power over millions, and that includes me, you, and the mouth-breathing idiot that is like “LOL TV NEVER FORCED ANYONE TO PANIC DURRR DURP DURP DURP”.
I can see sarcasm doesn’t go over well on the internet.
you know you gave them ratings by doing that
As long as it’s over 9000 it’s a problem.
Arbitrary number choosing, or are there facts to back that up?
It’s you not getting the reference.
Oh wow.
Over NINE THOUSAND?!?!?!?
It’s 9000!!!!!one!!!!11!1
What does the WHO say about the mortality level?!?!
no its not
Hai! I speekz lolspeak heer, k? I alwys speekz it n Cheezburgrland. Mai likz dis. It funneh cuz in Cheezburgrland, I iz mastr uv biolojicl wor. Mai relees strane uv swine flu dere and kild haf of peeps of scary. Mai iz king gangsta. Kthxbai.
Hi there, Gangstakitteh. I’m glad to know that your Cheezburgrlandinan bioterrorism ploy is going well. Just thought I’d let you know that we here at GraphJam tend to use real English.
We welcome you to GraphJam, and hope you will enjoy your stay.
Fully agreed, cbies. I can tolerate pretty much just the captions on the photos on ICHC and IHAH. Trying to read the comments just makes me want to shoot myself.
Ah well, too bad for you then. I won’t do it again here then.
Yeah. But maybe common flu infects a lot more people than swine flu. It’s all about mortality rates. Just under a hundred people were killed by swine flu, out of 1000 infected… but how many catch common flu every year?
Also, common flu kills people with weak immunologic systems, while swine flu is more likely to kill people with good immunologic systems, by means of cytokine storm.
THANK YOU. The media is to blame for a lot of the stupidity on the planet, but not this time. All the media stories I have seen supply only the facts about the swine flu: X people have it, X people dead, how you can protect yourself, what the CDC level is. No one has any natural immunity to this thing (well, a handful do now), and without treatment, it has a very high (for the flu) death rate. That means it has the potential to be a very big deal, especially if people do not protect themselves with antivirals and, when it comes out, the vaccine. That is all factual information. It’s up to each of us to take that information and THINK about it. No one in the media is saying “run, run, run for your lives!” JEEZ.
If you want to blame anybody for overinflating the issue, if in fact you think that was done, blame the CDC for raising the threat rate to 5.
That wasn’t a “threat rate”; it was a “pandemic level”. A pandemic is defined COMPLETELY by how widely the illness is spread and how many people have it. It says nothing about how dangerous the illness is. Level 5 simply means that it’s spreading from person to person in multiple countries.
True. Now combine the current pandemic level (not all that unusual) with the lack of natural immunity/vaccine (tres unusual) and the high mortality rate experienced in Mexico (also tres unusual, though not completely understood), and it becomes clear that this is not the average flu. Hopefully it peters out naturally this time around and a vaccine is developed to help people avoid it next time around.
That’s almost 1/10th of the people infected that died, How many people die from the “typical” flu compared to how many caught it, anyone know?
Typical flu: less than 1 percent.
Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918: 2.5 percent.
And according to the center for disease control there have been well 896 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu (probably way more than that) and only 2 confirmed deaths (probably not much more than that.)
“The media” uses mismatched numbers to make things seem worse than they really are, because fear causes news ratings to go up. They only do it because we’re to dumb to double check though, and they’ve stopped checking each other.
I don’t know why that well is in there before 896, and I should point out that those are only the cases in the US.
Er, it’s been *well-commented* in The Evil Sucking-at-the-Teat-of-Beelzebub Media that there have been two deaths in the US and that the majority of deaths have been in Mexico, and also that no one knows why this is.
This is not information that they’re trying to hide …
no, the mortality rate is 1.8%.
not 10%. the numbers are never/rarely that clean.
also, your second point is a total lie. the swine flu acts in the same way the regular flu, otherwise it would probably not be a flu.
“In Mexico, where the swine flu originated, the World Health Organization has definitively linked the virus to seven deaths. But there are also reports that more than 150 Mexicans have died from flu-like respiratory infections.
Although the data on deaths are accurate, no one knows how many Mexicans have been infected with swine flu. Initial news reports of more than 2,400 people infected is probably a huge under-estimate, experts say.
Thus, it would be a big mistake to divide 150 deaths by 2,400 infections and arrive at a mortality rate of 6 per cent.”
http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/quebec/deadly+H1N1/1554569/story.html
“Two deaths have been reported in the United States, resulting in a preliminary case-fatality rate of 0.2% among patients with laboratory-confirmed disease.”
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5817a1.htm
“Therefore, the actual fatality rate is likely far lower since the denominator (the number of people who have the disease) if probably much higher (not everyone is tested or identified). This is as compared to the typical case fatality of 1% in seasonal flu. Remember that in the US, the current case fatality rate is 0.92%.”
http://www.northeastems.org/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-update-519/
don’t trust the media, bud.
1.8% maximum* sorry
Regular flu Mortality rate 0.02-0.04%. 100million american infected with 20-40 thousand deaths. Swine flu is just over 1% currently. We’ll need to wait and see how it pans out in a few months as all major cases of influenza have begun with small spring outbreaks.
Who on here is actually worried about the swine flu? To be honest I want to catch the dam thing to see how sick I will actually feel, I don’t even know if I ever had any strain of the flu.
Lol, cbies, nice. Yeah, it’s just kinda fun to write like that every now and then.
“The media” is not a single homogenous blob. It’s too easy to smugly blame “the media” for whatever ails you; it’s just not that simple. The media are reporting what the CDC and the WHO and other major health organizations have told them (and us) is an imminent, deadly, pandemic disease. And it still might be. Just because it hasn’t wiped us all out in the first few weeks doesn’t mean it won’t return again for wave two in the fall, stronger than ever. That’s how MOST flu pandemics have historically worked. And we’re overdue for one.
But if you want to believe that “the media” is simply blowing this out of proportion for the sheer joy of it, go ahead. Ignorance is bliss.
not *the media*
The Drive By Media!
But do you really think it will be a big deal for anyone in a developed country?
Sure, it might wipe out millions of people in 3rd world country’s, but we may be due for a natural disaster to reduce our over-population.
^ view my above post.
“imminent, deadly, pandemic disease.”
wow, i have never heard that many over-reactive fear-causing words in the same sentence.
Way to take half of a sentence, place it out of context, and then use it to make a valid point ridiculous. “Ignorance is bliss”.
this is wrong…. yes, the number of people killed by influenza is higher than the number of people who have died from swine flu….. but the swine flu deaths have happened in less than a month.
still, the media IS blowing it out of proportion. cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands, limit your exposure to sick people (and mexicans,) and eat healthfully and exercise (which boosts your immune system)
What about people whom have cancer or Aids, or IDK kids like my 11yr old whom has Tourettes and other disorders. My son has uncontrollable tics where he touches things and either touches the inside of his nose or his mouth, it’s almost imposible to protect him at school…Not everyone can just wash their hands or “stay away from Mexicans”.
Not so easy for those with cancer ect…they usually have a lowered imune system and have to go to hospitols for treatment. My 11yr old son has Tourettes and other disorders. Due to his tics he touches things and then touches his nose or mouth, ALOT. These tics are neurological, I can’t just tell him to “stay away from Mexican’s” while covering his mouth and washing his hands….
Um … that’s pretty much the advice you’ll find in major media outlets. It is their job to report what is happening. It is our job to determine how that impacts our lives.
this is correct! people are stupid…
Why people keep making these?
How long has regular flu been around? How long has Swine Flu been around? How much of a chance has regular Flu had to infect people? How much of a chance has Swine Flu had to infect people? Think about it. Now do you see how ridiculously stupid making such a comparison is?
Plus it ignores same information about Swine Flu. 1. It can kill otherwise healthy people. 2. The estimated mortality rate is 6% but given most where in a country with poor medical care and its far to early to tell the actual mortality rate so this could be way off so I’ll say .5% to 2%. 3. Unlike the regular flu, our immune system have never encounter the H1N1 virus thus we are far more vulnerable to it than the regular flu. Given these 3, hypothetically: if 10% of the global population catches the Swine Flu, at an estimated world population of 6,791,000,000, the total death to would be between 3,395,500 and 13,582,000.
again… see my above point, the flu can also kill otherwise healthy people by immune over-reaction. i’ve heard mortality rates of .7%- 1.2% from credible sites, and up to 10% from media related sites and other not-credible sources.
The thing is…If half of the world population had regular influenza, and the other half had swine flu, the half with swine flu would see more deaths…It’s a new, dangerous strain, not a disease that predominantly affects third-world countries (not to say that there are no influenza deaths in developed countries)
see ALL my above posts.
don’t you people remember bird flu and SARS? the global pandemics that never even happened? come on.
Yes they didn’t happen because the proper precautions were taken, they had the potential and would have if all people thought like you do. This flu has already infected far more then both of the above.
See 1918
Wash yer hands!
You’re an idiot.
apparently you don’t realize how pandemics start.
Actually, on average, 50,000 people die of influenza every year in the US.
Last season it was 48,000.
omg too many comments. y do u always like chat and argue? i will spam all mean comments!
Well the whole reason why the CDC is going nuts about it, is because the swine flu is spreading extremely fast for the season. They are trying to prepare for when the actual flu season comes up. Since humans dont have an immunity to the swine flu. Sadly people freak out when they hear the news of a pandemic when they dont even know what it means in the context of how the cdc describes it. Just have to stay clean for now and wait it out.