There's nothing like a bit of panic

The apparently inevitable pandemic heading this way is not something I'm sure I want to know about in such detail!

Historically there have always been pandemics of one disease or another and always they carry with them horrendous death tolls but until recently the population were in what was maybe a fortunate position of not having to be assailed by a news hungry media with a penchant for creating as near panic among it's audience as is humanly possible.

Bad news sells, the good doesn't and there is nothing like a bit of panic to widen your target audience! Tell a population who are used to having a large degree of control over their lives, that somewhere between 50,000 to 175.000 of them are going to meet a premature end, courtesy of the latest strain of 'Avian flu' and I imagine viewing/reading/listening figures are guaranteed to hit a high!

Sure, we need to be informed, we need to take reasonable steps to protect ourselves but do we really need to be scared half way to death before we even come down with the virus, by news reports purposely utilising evocative and carefully chosen extreme wording?

A fool I may be but ignorance may just be bliss in some instances!