thank you, Voice of Reason

[winterbadger]

a very sensible commentary on the "swine flu crisis" from Mike Cosgrave

Nice to see at least one person who isn't running around in circles, screaming "The sky is falling!" I understand that the USG and the international health community want to be reassuring and show they are on top of things, but I think what's going on is feeding hysteria, not reassuring.

Comments

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

Wow, he must be really smart because I've essentially been saying what I've been saying all morning. ;)

I think cbackson summed it up well by saying that the WHO is flinging around the word "pandemic" and using it in a way that not many people think it means.

(of course, this doesn't mean I haven't been periodically refreshing the FCO's website to make sure they don't do something stupid.)

[winterbadger]

Indeed. The WHO using this word in such a Humpty-Dumpty fashion is...what would Sir Humphrey call it?

...unhelpful?

...injudicious?

...inadvisable?

...without adequate forethought for the possible ramifications of their singular interpretation of the linguistic symbolism surrounding usage of a specific piece of terminology and the likely adverse reaction of large portions of the population to such usage, including intemperate actions and reactions by large bodies of under-informed but over-motivated persons

[Hacker: What?
[Woolley: Minister, I think Sir Humphrey means "the WHO's use of the word 'pandemic' is going to whip up mobs of terrified idiots into a panicked frenzy."
[Appleby: Bernard, you have a remarkable gift for reducing complex and multifacted textual explication that expresses a range of meaning and thoughtful analysis into simple and straightforward commentary, refreshingly free of obfuscation, nuance, and conundrum.
[Wooley: *smiling self-deprecatingly* Thank you, Sir Humphrey!
[Appleby: *darkly* That was NOT a compliment, Bernard!

[winterbadger]

the WHO is flinging around the word "pandemic" and using it in a way that not many people think it means.

This cries out for a Fezzik icon. :-)