Could this be how it starts? “Captain Trips” as Stephen King called it in The Stand. A flu like no other, the start of the pandemic which most medical authorities concede, will occur sometime in the foreseeable future.
After last year, when there was hardly a sneeze or fever to be found, the beginning of 2013 starts with an alarming 22,048 cases reported from September 30, 2012 until the end of the year. During the same time period last year, 849 cases were reported. Reports of a hospital in Pennsylvania constructing an outdoor tent to house flu patients, and public emergencies being declared in both Boston and New York State, are scary to say the least.
The runaway virus in The Stand was caused by a government experiment gone amok…really, is there any other kind? And while at the moment there doesn’t seem to be anything sinister about this year’s flu, it does make you wonder just how much information is not being made public. We all know the government loves to protect us from any information which might cause… I don’t know, anarchy maybe.
Are we on the verge of the Zombie Apocalypse? Can this be the start of a virus which mutates and mutates, leaving behind those who survive to, well, not quite be themselves? Will we become a country who lives only in the daylight, afraid to go out at night and risk being eaten?
I doubt it, but it just might be time to think about getting a flu shot
Angie Uncovered
01/14/2013
We discussed the similarities to The Stand this morning in the office. A few ppl in the office have been hit by multiple strains of the flu already this season, each attack making you weaker and more susceptible to the next. Then it seems to mutate. Then the next person in line to get sick has slightly different but similar symptoms. We’ve had it already in my home. Everyone has been down about a week. My son now has a fever again, which is starting to piss me off. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. Maybe it’s his loud moaning and shit at night. Maybe it’s the all night cough sessions that no meds are helping. Maybe I’m rambling.
Kath
01/14/2013
All joking aside, it is a bit scary just how widespread this is. I think you need some sleep…and maybe some earplugs.
Jester Queen
01/14/2013
See- I think the media just keep stories like this in the bag for slow news times. At this point, after Newtown, in order to cheer us up as a nation, they have to come up with ‘only mildly shitty news’, since outright ‘good’ news would kills us immediately. The flu is perfect. It hasn’t been in the spotlight for a year or two, it’s easy to have the article written in advance with only the need to interview a new doctor or name a new vaccine, and boom, instant panic to distract the country from mourning. God I’m a cynic. I probably will develop it in three. .. two .. now. Cough.
Kath
01/14/2013
ah yes, the government has sent people to your house to sneeze the Captain Trips all over you. That will teach you to be talking conspiracy theory. Now the media will be checking into every aspect of your life…that should be interesting for the rest of us.
Damon
01/14/2013
I refuse to get the flu shot.
I also refuse to listen to authorities when they tell me to evacuate before a major weather event and ignore my doctor’s repeated pleas to lose weight.
I suspect that I won’t live to see my grandchildren but, damn it, I did it my way!
Kath
01/14/2013
A man with a plan…or not.
Lance
01/14/2013
being part robot, I rarely get sick, maybe once every two years and that’s when I get my oil changed.
I honestly think people’s immine systems are the deal. My wife and 8-year-old can get sick from looking at Flo on the Progressive commercials because her name is almost Flu. My 9-yr-old and I are like little Terminators. You can’t kill us.
I hope everyone, including my teenager avoid the Flu this time around.
Andrea
01/14/2013
I think I have the flu. fuck.
Kath
01/14/2013
do you think it’s the original or the mutated version?