Sunday, May 3, 2009

Swine Flu: Alarm bells are justified

I have been asked by an annoyed businessman whether the press has over reacted in its coverage of the swine flu issue. The front page coverage is no doubt bad for business, especially for those involved in tourism and air travel. The global financial crisis is already bad enough for airlines and the swine flu isn't helping.


But we are dealing with human lives here. It is a health issue that concerns human lives. So the education and precaution are necessary. In comparison against SARS, which claimed many lives, so far only one fatal case has been reported. But we must note that this is a new strain of flu virus.We haven't developed an immunity and we are unsure how harmful it would be. This is a flu that is spreading from human to human.


The alarm bells are certainly justified. At this point, no one is even sure why the flu has hit so many victims in Mexico. The World Health Organisation has correctly asked the flu to be renamed as pig farmers have been blamed unfairly. In some countries, pigs have been culled and pork banned. It is a silly reaction but that's due to ignorance and even prejudices. This is where education comes to play.


Precaution, as they sayd, is better than cure. Diseases are being spread faster now because the world has become smaller. The easy access to air travel simply means diseases would be passed faster. It's the same with arrivals of foreign workers, who may not have been properly checked. Tuberculosis, for example, has returned to countries like Malaysia and Singapore which do not have such disease for a long time but it has made a comeback because of the foreign workers.

12 comments:

nstman said...

The real bloody swines are the Press and world health organisation. They are scaring the hell out of everybody with their apocalytic view of the virus. In the first place, the virus is a non-starter. Only a few deaths. Bloody swines! I hope the Press and WHO personnel get the virus.

Odette said...

Definitely better to be safe than sorry. Please stay true to news reporting and do not bow to the whims of wealthy businessmen.

Dari Borneo ke Minang said...

Sdr. Wong Chun Wai,

The swines are sweating by the attentions accorded to them of late.

Nonetheless despite sweating, the swines don't cheat, rob, rape, plunder and are not corrupt like some humans...

In some religions, the swines are disgusting. But God created them to be disgusting. So we cannot blame them for being so.

But human was created with functioning brain. Unfortunately the brains were used wrongly.

Used to wrong the right...

Sekian.

Tekkaus said...

I agree with Odette! It's better safe than sorry. :D

Martz said...

Justified yes. Agree totally that prevention is better than cure.

The Spanish Lady of 1918 came in three waves i.e the deadliest being the 3rd wave at the end of 1918 resulting in 30mil to 40mil lives lost worldwide.

Let hope and pray that H1N1 abates for all oursakes.(Psalm 91)

Maniam said...

rThis is something I would like to share with all friends.
When I first went into Lim Kit Siang's blog (blog.limkitsiang.com), the first thing I read is him calling Mukhriz (Jerlun MP) and Tan Keng Liang (gerakan kedah youth chief) as people "lack of grey matters" and silly. That was about 2 weeks ago. Today, I read that he said "the IQ of the Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who is MCA Vice President and Penang MCA State chief, is highly suspect when he could not understand simple English". The problem is that the more Lim Kit Siang branding that he is smarter than the rest of the people in the world (which I don't belief), the more people will just see him as a person barking on the wrong tree. I support DAP but I wish that our party's chairman can be more polite when addressing other leaders (whether they are Barisan or Pakatan). Otherwise, this will set bad example to the new generation of Malaysians.

And as for today also, Lim Kit Siang also hits out at Star newspaper for not publishing his comments and responce to Liow Tiong Lai. I think LKS is behaving as if he is the prime minister of malaysia.

Anonymous said...

The mainstream media should be more careful in reporting not only this issue but also others including political developments. MSM is losing it influence so all the spinning will produce very little impact as proven by March 8 GE and the subsequent bye elections. Anyway, if there is a vacancy in Puchong seat, will it be called a Bai election ?

Just curious

Anonymous said...

Please help us achieve a truely free and independent press and a truely better New Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Datuk please help us create a new and better Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

Maniam, it's no accident why LKS is the way he is. He's surrounded by idiots. I mean the country is swarming with them. Look at yourself for example - you profess to support DAP but you lamblast LKS all in the same sentence. LKS is DAP. If you have not figured that out yet, LKS can do whatever the hell he wants and you will like it.

tips said...

Hello Chun Wai, I know this is irrelevant with the topic at hand, but because this deals with a topic all Malaysians should know so I am posting it here should you be interested. I stumbled upon a video of a PAS junior official calling for non-Muslims to be tattooed if they do not want to be buried as Muslims. You can check out the video here.

I am not sure about you, but are we to let these extremists get away with such brazen seditious statements that is inciting religious disharmony among Malaysians in the blogosphere ? How would non-muslims feel to be treated like Jews to be tattooed during the Hitler Nazi era ?

This has got to stop, we cannot let these people continue to cause religious/racial disharmony by making such videos and disseminating them online.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4474858428888866992


http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/2102/46/

"written by FFT, January 31, 2008 16:22:13
Oh, by the way...just an FYI for everyone since it's election season and all:

MENJ holds office at a junior, local level in PAS.

These are the bloodthirsty Nazi wolves hiding behind the warm, seemingly accommodating "front lines" of PAS' vote canvassers."

Amanda Crowe said...

H1N1 (referred to as “swine flu” early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those caused by other influenza viruses. Health authorities across the globe are taking steps to try to stem the spread of swine flu after outbreaks in Mexico and the United States. The World Health Organization has called it a "public health emergency of international concern."