Does anybody know the answer to this? I can't remember the last time we had a really good epidemic, can you? I would say it has probably been a generation. We can't seem to wipe out cancer, but the epidemic is gone. Who did it? How did it happen? Can't we bring it back?
To back up just a little growing up in the 1980s there was a serious AIDS epidemic. I think we can all remember the Drugs epidemic that Nancy Reagan so boldly fought with her "Just Say NO!" campaign. On a lesser scale there used to be a flu epidemic that would go around during the winter months that people would go and get innoculated for only to get an early case of the flu and then avoid the upcoming epidemic. I still don't really understand that one.
Now wait just a minute, Mr. Smarty Pants Elgarf, you must be thinking. We still have the problems with AIDS, drugs, the flu, cholera in Zimbabwe...
Stop right there, asshole! These problems are so massive these days that we can no longer settle for the EPIDEMIC! These are goddamn PANDEMIC occurrences!
AIDS PANDEMIC! CHOLERA PANDEMIC! JOBLESS PANDEMIC! Everything is a goddamn pandemic. Why? Why did we never have pandemics before? Were AIDS and drugs less serious in the 80s? Certainly not. How could we possibly live through those epidemic times only to be faced with the pandemics of today? It scares the living shit out of me! My chances of falling victim to a pandemic are far greater than my chances of falling victim to an epidemic. I don't like that. It makes me want to stay inside and not come into contact with ANYONE! I felt much safer in the days of the epidemic. An epidemic is small scale (many individuals within a population, community or region at the same time, excessively prevalent-according to Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary). A pandemic is large scale (occuring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high number of the population-according to the same source). We can no longer afford to piss around with epidemics. These are pandemic times!
Wait a minute, when we look at ZIMBABWE and their Cholera PANDEMIC it would seem to fit more into the EPIDEMIC category: many individuals within a population? check. excessively prevalent? check. Covering a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high number of individuals within a population? Not so much. Not yet. In fact I think if the situation over there gets any worse it could have the potential of becoming a Pandemic, but it isn't yet.
We are living in seriously X-TREME! times, sensational times, super-sized times, 24-hour news cycle times!
Everything is BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST, or at least made out to be that way. I am sick of everything that comes across the news desk being reported in this way. Call it what it fucking is. Don't use "grand" words to make your story seem grander. Doing so reduces your gravitas, in Lord Elgarf's opinion.
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2 comments:
I'll see your AIDS Pandemic and raise you a SARS!
In all seriousness though, I think your main point is a good observation; we seem to only know about the extreme as it is that exaggeration that gets attention and nothing less. At least that's the way the marketing wizards see it.
Everything is bigger, and everyone selling those bigger things is getting louder and louder.
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