Kudos to KREM
One case of measles has popped up in Spokane. Measles isn't an especially big deal, or at least it wasn't when I was a kid ... but now that commies have been permitted to skip vaccinations, every disease is more of a threat.

Media can play a positive or negative role in restoring a sane approach to public health. The response of the major media outlets to this one case is instructive.

All but KREM have simply passed along the worse-than-useless crap provided by local health agencies. This statement is full of condescending officialese and empty of information.

"INFECTED INDIVIDUAL TRAVELED TO FOLLOWING LOCATIONS ON FOLLOWING DATES."

TRAVELED? Were INFECTED GENDERLESS INDIVIDUAL wandering all over town trying to spread THEIR germs? Did they TRAVEL first class or coach?

It sounds like a reluctant agency response to a FOIA request, covering the agency's ass with a rash of black spots and REDACTEDs. The only information you can derive from this nonsense is "You are shit. You do not deserve information."

That's exactly the right way to MAXIMIZE paranoia and MINIMIZE compliance. Good job of destroying public health, public health agency!

= = = = =

KREM told the story in normal English, adding several sidebar stories with general info about vaccination.

Turns out THEY are not a GENDERLESS INDIVIDUAL, he's a man; and he didn't TRAVEL TO FOLLOWING LOCATIONS, he went to work and then went to a gym for exercise. More importantly, he tried to get treatment FOUR times after he felt sick. He didn't simply TRAVEL to those four LOCATIONS; he had to keep trying because they were too incompetent to recognize measles.

And that last part is the information we really need. Measles is not tremendously lethal, but the high fever can do real damage if you don't control it. Knowing that local hospitals are too fucking stupid to recognize the disease, you can be ready to control the fever with aspirin or something stronger.

Those sidebar stories are also important. When we sense a scarcity of any substance from gasoline to information, we get fearful and take desperate steps to stock up on the substance, often picking up bad stuff along the way. But when we sense abundance, we relax. We don't go hunting for extra supplies.

That's how you MINIMIZE paranoia.
  ¶ 8:53 AM