Article about H1N1 but applies to HCR - "humans actually fear uncertainty more than physical pain"

[Pirate Smile]

I came across this Time Magazine article on the flu but so much of it regarding human psychology seems to clearly apply to the current Health Care Reform battle:

Who's Afraid of the Flu?
By Amanda Ripley



The brain loathes uncertainty. In laboratory experiments, humans actually fear uncertainty more than physical pain. We are simply wired this way. When we encounter uncertainty, the first thing we do is try to beat it back. The problem is, uncertainty may not be the biggest threat. It may be a distraction — the kind we have to cope with while we do the actual work of keeping ourselves alive.

-snip-
As word spread that three students at Hayden's school had the new flu, people in his town began trying to stamp out the uncertainty. It was an unsatisfying endeavor. Health officials came to Hayden's house and asked him dozens of questions. Had he been to Mexico lately? (No.) Had he had contact with any pigs? (No.) That weekend, Texas health officials closed all 14 schools in Hayden's district, sending 11,000 children home. Workers wiped down the school district's 100-plus buses. At Cibolo city hall, employees posted signs asking residents to pay their utility bills at a drop box instead of coming inside. Garbage collectors donned face masks. At the time, no one knew how deadly the virus was — or how many people had it.

-snip-
To make sense of the situation, some people needed a villain. Bloggers accused pharmaceutical companies of intentionally concocting the virus in order to sell vaccines. On one website, conspiracy theorists researched public records about the Henshaws and deduced that they were actually victims of radiation poisoning — possibly from a dirty bomb smuggled in through Mexico. As things turned out, Hayden's school reopened about a week later. To make up for the lost time, school officials canceled final exams. With that, Hayden's classmates found it in their hearts to forgive him. The summer brought a new consensus about H1N1 flu to Cibolo. "Now people say, 'Ah, it's no big deal.They blew everything out of proportion,'" says Patrick, who's still a bit mystified by the whiplash of reactions — from paranoia to complacency in a fortnight.

It would all be a surreal memory for Cibolo and the rest of America, if only it were over. Instead, Hayden's case is a flare in the darkness, a warning that as the nation begins its second big battle with a strange flu virus, we are up against a threat that we are not particularly skilled at overcoming, one that provokes an extreme range of emotions — from fear to indifference — none of which are all that helpful. The battle ahead is psychological as much as it is medical. And although we have heard a great deal about the importance of washing our hands, the real challenge may be in how to live with what we don't know.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1924228,00.html

[Kaleva]

1. The greater the change, the greater the resistance.

[Pirate Smile]

2. kick

[backscatter712]

3. There's quite a few cases of Bacon Lung at my university.

On the bright side, it does seem to be a highly contagious, but otherwise mundane version of the flu. If you get it, you'll get fever, chills, sniffles, cough for a few days, but you'll recover. But everyone will want to put you in quarantine...