Seeing all the news coverage of the latest "pandemic" makes me want to just stop watching TV or listening to the radio.  It's just too much.

Photos of people wearing masks to work... parents pulling their kids out of school... schools in Texas closing... even the President and Vice-President are adding to the flames.

So to put it in perspective, here are some numbers...

Historic Death Tolls:

Bubonic Plague:  estimates range from 75 to 200 million people died
1918 Flu Pandemic:  40 million deaths

Current Diseases:

Malaria:  Annually, about 1 million deaths
Yellow Fever:  (thought this was gone, didn't you?)  30,000 deaths annually, AND we have a vaccine for it.

Influenza (the normal kind you buy NyQuil for):  conservative numbers... 20,000 deaths in the United States alone annually.

Recently Hyped "Epidemics"

SARS:  774 deaths total worldwide, 0 in the U.S.
Bird Flu (H5N1):  257 deaths total worldwide
West Nile Virus:  124 deaths in the U.S. in 2007

Current Death Toll of This Strain of Swine Flu:  160 suspected... 7 confirmed, worldwide

And... For Comparison:

Number of people struck by lightning in the U.S. in 2008:  329... 27 killed.
Number of people preportedly killed annually by hippopotamus attacks:  200

But you just watch... when this thing blows over like it always does, the hype-mongers... the media, celebrities, and all the talking heads in Washington are going to take credit for "averting this disaster"

sigh...

p.s.  ... and I have no idea what key words in this entry would trigger "Legally Blonde, the Musical" google ads to appear in it... maybe because you should avoid it like the plague...