Wash Your Hands and Hope for the Best

Fear is a powerful emotion. The threat of harm, pain, or even death is a motivator like few others.

Those in power know how to stoke fear. So does the media. That doesn’t mean that fear has no purpose, or that fear isn’t valid.

To live in our time of technological ascendancy, the temptation to believe that all things can be fixed with just a little more tech is a default temptation. “It can’t happen here,” or “now,” or “we’ve evolved beyond that” are all common refrains that technology has empowered.

The facemask as daily wear.

On New Year’s Eve Day, we first learned about several flu-like cases in Wuhan, the capital city in the nation’s Hubei province. The city has a population of 11 million. People were being quarantined and Chinese authorities were trying to parse the source of the outbreak.

One week later, investigations ruled out that this was bird flu, a type of seasonal flu outbreak, or even SARS and MERS. The number of suspected cases had grown to 60 people, with seven Chinese citizens in critical condition. Health officials hadn’t confirmed human-to-human transmission. Continue reading

Sick Day

flu

Starve a cold; feed a fever?

I’m rarely sick. In fact, when I was growing up, being sick was seen as a sign of weakness, or a character deficiency.

The last time I had an extended bout with the flu was about 10 years ago. I’ve been getting the flu shot each year, but had put off getting mine this year.

Since Tuesday is a scheduled blogging day here at the JBE,  we’ll consider this a blogging “sick day,” as it will have to suffice until my headache, fever, and other symptoms of the flu have dissipated.

What would Dr. Oz recommend?