Er, chill out...

Not one to foment panic, the World Health Organisation has tried to gently reassure us all that:

"ALL OF HUMANITY IS UNDER THREAT!!!!!!!"

Now it would be terribly embarrassing for me to downplay the risks of swine flu and then die from it in the coming months along with a fifth of the world's population, but come on, really ... is there any need for this alarmism when at present, in eleven countries there are a few hundred cases between them, and outside of Mexico, er, one fatality.

I know, I know, safety first - no harm in upping the threat level to 5 out of 6, just in case. Who knows - those warning of an international pandemic may be 100% vindicated by the time it has all played out.

But can we just not lose our heads here? If thousands start to die across the globe, let's really start worrying. But until that point I'd prefer it if the WHO didn't feel the need to tell me, with little basis in reality, that I and my entire species are in immediate existential danger. The WHO is calling for "global solidarity." What is it about any alleged "international crisis" that globalists feel the need to blow it out of all recognisable proportion, presumably in order to justify some drastic "global action"? Who can forget bird flu? Or that old favourite, AGW? More recently we've had the economic crisis, in which we were promised a ludicrous scenario of utter apocalyptic economic meltdown if massive co-ordinated international action wasn't taken.

B*gger them all. If the shit hits the fan with this swine flu business, we'll all know about it. Until that possibility materialises however, I don't think any international institution should be trying to worry us anymore than we already are - with all these other "massive global crises" or potential crises we're crapping our pants over.

Like I said, it could be embarrassing, if swine flu really is the pandemic the everybody-panic crowd say it is, for me to downplay it, but I mean ... really. Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, I remember, it was a few years ago when bird flu was going to wipe out a third of us or whatever. I recall prominent figures predicting an outbreak, within a fairly limited period of time, with some certainty. And quelle surprise, it never happened.

And have you noticed our big headline-making diseases all seem to be named after animals? Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu, Swine Flu ... on their way soon are Sheep Fever and Horse's Veruka.