The Ebola virus (courtesy of the Huffington Post). |
We Americans do panic really well.
We could use a few pointers on prudence.
Do
me a favor. Turn away from the ceaseless media coverage of Ebola in
Texas — the interviews with the Dallas nurse’s neighbors, the
hand-wringing over her pooch, the instructions on protective medical
gear — and answer this: Have you had your flu shot? Are you planning on
one?
During the 2013-2014 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, only 46 percent of Americans received
vaccinations against influenza, even though it kills about 3,000 people
in this country in a good year, nearly 50,000 in a bad one.
These are deaths by a familiar assassin. Many of them could have been
prevented. So why aren’t we in a lather over that? Why fixate on remote
threats that we feel we can’t control when there are immediate ones that
we simply don’t bother to?
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