Just settle down — and don’t give up eating bacon

Agweek
Published: 11/02/2009

DICKINSON, N.D. — It’s not a good time to party, but it’s also not a good time to hide.

Fear of catching the sometimes-deadly H1N1 has moms and dads rushing their children to the emergency room to make sure they are going to make it through this illness.

At least one local business has posted a sign that says, “If you have the sniffles, don’t enter.”

If the amount of hand sanitizer popping up in offices, schools and everywhere else is any indication, sales are skyrocketing.

And where is the vaccine, where is the vaccine?

Settle down!

People get sick and we cannot live our lives running around with overwhelming fear.

This also has given bacon a bad name — no need to give up bacon.

The virus originally was referred to as “swine flu” because tests showed that many of the genes in the virus were similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Later studies found that H1N1 is very different from what normally circulates in pigs.

We are not saying don’t wash your hands and don’t try to steer clear of pale-faced, hacking passers-by.

We are saying, take it easy, don’t run off to the emergency room at the first sign of fatigue and try not to worry your neighbors by spreading unsubstantiated rumors of people writhing in pain on their deathbeds.