Panic stations

As I sat watching the news last night on the TV, I couldn't help wondering if the reporting wasn't designed to set the population into a panic. Over the weekend we're hoping to book our holiday to Italy. We've decided on a destination - at last, I hear you say. We're hoping to go in September/October time. Now I'm beginning to wonder if we should book. Do we really want to be stuck on a plane, sharing re-circled air, with a load of people contaminated with swine flu germs? For that matter it sounds as though we will be too ill, virtually on death's doorstep, ourselves to be going anywhere.

Today I'm blowing my nose for England. Is this the dreaded flu? Well, no, it isn't. I've just be grating an onion for some burgers we're having for dinner this evening. But after yesterday's news I feel I ought to be phoning up the flu line just to check.

I couldn't help agreeing with the children's writers who refuse to be vetted before they go into schools. They're absolutely right. They are not going to be in a position to build up a relationship with any single child to subsequently abuse them. But now parents are in such a panic due to the publicity given to some cases of abuse that everyone is presumed to be a paedophile unless proved to be otherwise. Yet I suspect the actual numbers of abuse have not increased. And certainly most abuse is not done by strangers but by family & friends.

I sometimes think when there is no real news, the news services feel they have to set up these panics until something really newsworthy to report happens. So we have phases of child abuse, knife stabbing, swine flu, gang warfare etc. As far as swine flu goes, all we, the general public, need to know is that the authorities have thought about provision for extra vaccines & other medicines, extra staff cover in the event of a large amount of illness, then let us get on with life as normal & hope the worst doesn't happen. It's not as though there's anything we can do to change the situation. Most people of my generation will still remember the public info ads with the refrain "Coughs & sneezes spread diseases." It's to state the obvious to tell you to use paper tissues & throw them away, to avoid going out unnecessarily if you have symptoms (though usually if you have flu you're lucky to even feel up to getting out of bed let alone going out).

So why try to panic us all?