angiEmedia

As the misleadingly named “swine flu” spreads across the world killing a few people here and there, a combination of scientific illiteracy and emotional idiocy are hurting a lot of people and businesses.

The pork industry is seeing sales plummet as people errantly think eating pork is dangerous due to the virus.

Swine flu gives hog farmers fits — They would prefer a flu strain by any other name

The swine flu strain that is spreading is a never-before-seen hybrid of human, swine and bird influenza but is widely known as swine flu. Though it is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and one in the United States, public health officials have said eating products such as bacon, ham and pork chops is safe as long as the meat is cooked thoroughly.

Still, the outbreak has depressed the U.S. pork industry. China, Russia and Ukraine have banned pork imports from Mexico and parts of the United States, and the outbreak has stalled the usual spring rise in U.S. hog prices.

Governments of questionable intelligence, such as Egypt, are ordering all of the pigs in their nations to be slaughtered.

Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu

“It is unfortunate,” the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said of Egypt’s decision. “The crisis today is in transmission from human to human. It has nothing to do with pigs,” he told The Associated Press.

Scientists are suggesting using the name “H1N1 flu” to disassociate the flu outbreak from pigs which may have had nothing much to do with it.

But even if that problem gets fixed and people learn that “swine flu” shouldn’t mean the death of all pigs, other loose-lipped government officials are trying to sink proverbial ships. Joe Biden, the same mindless damage-monger responsible for the “don’t help abused men” atrocity known as VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act), recommended that people not travel and stay away from confined spaces.

Oh, Joe: VP’s off-base flu advice needs do-over

At 7:05 a.m. Thursday, Biden was asked on NBC’s “Today” show what advice he would give to a family member who was considering flying to Mexico.

“I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.” Biden went on to say he wouldn’t suggest that they ride the subway either.

What this “crisis” points out is that governments are often incapable of dealing with facts and reality. Further, they uses relatively small crises to distract populations from much more severe and long-lasting crises such as domestic violence, child abuse, government fiscal incompetence, religious terrorism, and so forth. The populace falls for the bait because it is too poorly educated and readily manipulated by “manic panics” caused by the irresponsible media. It’s no wonder that serious problems don’t get fixed by governments in the United States or much of anywhere else.