Swine Flu and Other Misrepresentations

For a while now we have had to respond to friends' concerns about the danger of Mexico for various reasons. Up until now it has been the banditos and gang related dangers. We see the news as well, but if you listen carefully they always end with "Reporting live from Tijuana" or "Reporting live from Juarez" or "Reporting live from Nuevo Laredo". When saying that these cities are representative of Mexico, our friends down here merely laugh. We are well over 1,000 to 3,000 miles away from these places, and a world of difference. Our friends in CA are much closer. So we don't see any of that here.

Now we are faced with the pandemic associated with swine flu. The first we heard about it was Sunday, 26 April after we came home from church. We noticed on the internet that the pandemic seemed to be going rampant throughout Mexico. There were 59 deaths attributed to swine flu in Mexico. Tuesday we went to Guadalajara and about one quarter of the people were wearing masks. By Thursday morning the deaths due to swine flu were changed to only 20 and by that afternoon it had been changed to only 7 or 8. Someone please help us, what are we missing? 7 deaths due to swine flu is a pandemic, the other 52 are due to regular flu and that is NOT a pandemic. Btw, the US has 38,000 to 40,000 deaths per year due to regular flu, again NOT a pandemic. However, by now the world has gone into a panic mode. Thanks to media hype Mexico might soon be off limits. We wonder with the media always crying "wolf" what will happen when a real wolf strikes. As an aside, some of the media has become rational again. Here is a direct quote -"One flu expert says there's no reason to believe the new virus is a more serious strain than seasonal flu. And a federal health official said the new flu virus doesn't appear to have genes that made the 1918 pandemic flu strain so deadly."

Today we went to church again and witnessed an interesting phenomenon. The Mexican government has suggested a number of safety measures. Schools have been closed for the past week. Businesses have been recommended to close for 5 days over the weekend (which conveniently includes 2 holidays). Avoid public gatherings. These are not mandates, only suggestions. But our church abode by them - the Friday and Saturday meetings were canceled, today at church, masks were made available (although using them has not been shown to be efficacious), chairs were spaced far apart, a sign asked people to refrain from hugging or kissing. One of the advantages with a church that meets outdoors is that, with sufficient land, the six foot space requirement was not difficult to meet. The no-hugging rule request was much more difficult! Here are some photos we took this morning of the impact of these measures. Are we in danger? The closest suspected case is hundreds of miles away, in another state. From what we can gather the pandemic is more media hype than real danger. We can't wait until it settles down again, and the parents of all the kids who are home from school probably feel the same.

However, this might be a good warning to think through some things. Maybe we should heed the Words of Jesus, "Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands" and "In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that the Kingdom of God is near." It is these Words of Jesus that give us comfort to know that He knew all about it 2,000 years ago and is still in control. We are definitely living in interesting and exciting times. Question is, are we ready?