And This Little Piggy Stayed Home With Swine Flu, Which Strangely Enough Does Not Actually Affect Pigs

Here at Cornell, flu vaccines are finally available. Not the pig version, sadly, but the seasonal one. On Friday, the first day that they offered them, about 2000 people went and got them (the line to them was hundreds of people long.) Nothing like preventing flu by cramming hundreds of people into one small area. But anyways, I noticed something of late in regards to the three-little-piggies flu.

It's actually rather funny. Swine is still quite prevalent on campus, and is just as dangerous as it was a week ago, and yet no one seems to care about it as much anymore. Rather than a daily update of the number of cases on the front page of the paper, with that number skyrocketing each and every day; one has to go out of one's way to investigate the number of swine flu cases (and it's worth noting that the rate of reported cases has also mysteriously gone down).

Why might this be? No, not because of the increasing amount of Purell on campus (which does not actually kill the flu). No, not because of increased awareness from Gannet Health Services (though this may have some effect). Rather, it is because of the following:

Swine's suddenly not
As much an issue now that
Class won't be canceled


Last week, President Skorton sent out an email quelling rumors of canceled classes if the swine flu head count exceeded 1000. Need I say more?

The(o) Wolf avoids the Piggy

Well, swine flu, which to me had more or less been over-hyped, has struck quite close to home. This evening, my hallmate was rushed to presumably the ER by the EMT (Emergency Medical Troupe I believe. Although team would make more sense than troupe in this century. Why did troupe even come to mind?). So, in response to that, I have decided to compose a haiku. An ode to H1N1 as you will, although I am sure you can expect many more swine haikus to come.

Purell at one point
Was the juice of germaphobes
Swine flu has changed that


That's right- at least here at Cornell, Purell has become as much a presence on campus as cheap beer is at a frat party. This is quite fortuitous for me, as people no longer think I'm weird for carrying around a bottle of Purell (though they soon discover that I am weird for a number of other reasons).