Bolt’s Swine Flu aporkolypse

Monday, May 4,  2009

Guy Rundle writes:

“GOD, save us! We’re all going to die all over again, and from yet another foreign virus.” notes the Bolter, in another of his stories debunking global scares. Who could these loonies be, spreading wild stories about the apocalyptic possibilities?

Well there’s one blogger with the Herald Sun who was quick to imagine the worst:

Andrew Bolt — Sunday, April 26, 09 (07:57pm)

Ebola. SARS. One day these predictions of a deadly pandemic may become true — far truer than even AIDS:

Governments around the world rushed on Sunday to check the spread of a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.

UPDATE

Ten New Zealand students are likely to have contracted swine flu during a trip to Mexico, testing has found …

UPDATE 2

Health officials in Australia say they are on standby …

Still, an early posting (can’t you hear the voice pitch in those “updates” rising steadily?). Maybe the next day he was more circumspect.

Andrew Bolt — Monday, April 27, 09 (08:45am)

Will this be the pandemic we’ve been warned about since Avian flu and SARS?

The swine flu virus that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico may mutate into a “more dangerous” strain, the World Health Organisation has warned.

A partial list of countries affected so far:

Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, US

UPDATE

Bear in mind that “suspected” cases is not the same as proven. “Suspected” victims in France and Britain have been given the all clear, for instance. Nevertheless:

TWO people are in hospital in Queensland with symptoms similar to deadly swine flu after a trip to Mexico.

UPDATE 2

Let’s not panic just yet, as we’ve done so often before:

Tests on two Queenslanders feared to have contracted the deadly swine flu after a trip to Mexico are negative.

Update two would otherwise be titled “note to self” written in shaky handwriting. And by the next day he was no longer capable of reading it:

Andrew Bolt — Tuesday, April 28, 09 (06:34am)

This getting serious:

FIVE Australians were in isolation last night as the rising death toll from the Mexican swine flu epidemic sent a wave of panic around the world.

And seriouser:

MEXICANS were banned from kissing …

Having hedged his bets for three days, Bolter finally took a punt: “Swine flu softens brains”

Andrew Bolt — Wednesday, April 29, 09 (09:45am)

Truly, we have more to fear from fear itself — and from the conspiracy kooks fear unleashes. No, I’m not taking about global warming this time but swine flu, and the program put out last night by America’s Coast to Coast, which boasts 3 million weekly listeners …

Of course — it was all just another one of those rising panics he keeps warning us about — and to make it perfectly clear what those rising panics look like, he replicated one in his blog.