This Little Piggy Went to Mexico...Then The Hospital

As I sit here this morning, eating my Taylor Ham sandwich, and reading about the state of emergency being declared due to the swine flu on Reuters website, the same question keeps flashing into my head like a bacon...umm, that's *beacon* of reason. The question is: Why would anyone go to Mexico?

I'm sorry, but Mexico is a shithole; and that my friends, is why so many from there risk their lives to get the hell out. Oddly, I have some friends that moved there and love it. I just can't figure out for the life of me why anyone would travel to a place where, roughly 4 thousand years after the Greeks started doing it, they haven't figured out how to produce potable water. One could argue that Mexico is not a shithole and that its just the border-towns that give it a bad name, but if you are 4 thousand years behind the curve...you see where I'm going with this.

Anyway, so now we have a new swine flu scare. The facts are, influenza is a decently scary virus. It mutates very often; various strains kill between 250,000-500,000 people per year (and in some instances like in 1968, close to 1 million); and if that weren't enough, there have been times in history where, as it happened it 1976, the vaccines created to prevent the flu create bigger problems like Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Should you be worried about this? Are pigs everywhere banding together in an evil plot to rid the Earth of humans and take over the world using biological warfare? Probably not. Thus far, there have been ~1,600 suspected patients in Mexico since April with 22 confirmed deaths; and pretty much everywhere else that the strain has been identified, people are pretty much recovering just fine. If the virus does mutate into something that causes a global pandemic, then you could start worrying. Until then, I am going to do my part to fight off General Porky Pig and the Swine Legion by eating as many of them as I can.

Everyone should obviously take precautions. If you feel sick, go to the doctor just like with anything else. I think for now, most of us are safe. BUT, eventually some virus will mutate into a strain that we can't contain and begin weeding out populations; and then Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all folks! http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7CclVneVpw