I used to like listening to NPR.

Lately all it seems to be is alternating between fluff and doom & gloom.

Economy crashes. Corporate greed. Torture allegations. Swine flu.

Fuck it all.

You want to know about swine flu from an insider?

The stress that the story is generating will likely reduce more life than the virus itself. I feel sympathy for the people who have suffered from an actual infection of the virus, but what the mass media is doing is worse.

There isn’t much that modern medicine can do against a newly evolved strain of virus. It takes time to generate potential medicines and therapies.

That being said, there is a lot that you can do now to prevent spread/infection by viral beasties.

1) Wash your hands. With regular soap. Don’t pay extra for ‘antibiotic soap’. All soap is antibiotic.

2) Sneeze into the crook of your elbow rather than onto your hands if you can manage it. Sure your shirt sleeve may get a little snotty sometimes, but most virus are spread via the things we handle. How often do you use the crook of your elbow to handle things?

3) Stay healthy. Eat right. Get enough sleep. In other words – keep your immune system charged!

4) Enjoy life.

And for me (4) means that I’m switching off Morning Edition. I hope they can bring it back around, but it is unlikely I’ll be there for them in the future.