is this THE ONE?

[iambiguous]

Every couple of years it seems, there is a new virus discovered that is propelled ominously into the spotlight. Most seem to disappear from the headlines after a short period time. Remember swine flu? SARS? bird flu? But then there was AIDS, right?

Now comes this one: MERS. But what to believe, right? That’s somewhat intrinsic to the capitalist media. They sell the news. So potentially scary stuff like this might be hyped up for just that reason.

thedailybeast.com/articles/2 … nings.html

[James_S_Saint]

We shouldn’t begrudge her this bit of showmanship; her job is to prepare people for what might be ahead. That means overstating the threat more than once in a while, as she is with MERS. But her work will not be wasted, unfortunately. Sooner or later, we will indeed meet up with another truly scary epidemic and another reason to pay sober attention to the pronouncements of the WHO. And then their experience in corralling the world’s attention, sharpened by the likes of MERS, may make all the difference.

…cry wolf so as to prepare people for the real thing.
…Seriously?

[Drusuz]

Journalists need something to broadcast and write about, simple.