When government agencies and medical practitioners tell us not to panic or overreact with regard to the Swine Flu Pandemic, this is advice to be heeded and there are several reasons for this: there is very much a downside to being overly cautious in this particular case.
By misinterpreting any and every small sniffle or fever as being the sign of Swine flu many people tend to rush in to get tested where there may be no real need for this.
This tends to clog up the system and slows it down to the extent that genuine cases will either have to wait longer or will not have access to medical care and in the meantime may end up infecting more people.
Also it is not wise to take Tamiflu as a precautionary measure. For one the supplies needed for real victims may fall short and for another using the drug indiscriminately may make the virus mutate and become resistant to the medication, rendering it ineffective.
For all of these reasons it is important to not panic, not overreact and behave in a mature and socially responsible manner so as to benefit society as a whole. To do anything else would be selfish, short sighted and counter productive.
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