FINDING A SCAPEGOAT WHEN EPIDEMICS STRIKE
The swine flu outbreak of 2009 has been nowhere near as virulent as the pandemics throughout history. However, as history has shown, someone gets the blame for the spread of epidemics — at first Mexico, with attacks on Mexicans ∈ other countries.
In May, a Mexican soccer player who said he was called a “leper” by a Chilean opponent spat on his tormentor. In June, Argentines stoned Chilean buses, saying they were importing disease. When Argentina’s caseload soared, European countries warned their citizens against visiting it.
“When disease strikes and humans suffer,” said Dr. Liise-anne Pirofski, an expert on the history of epidemics, “the need to understand why is very powerful. And, unfortunately, identification of a scapegoat is sometimes inevitable.”
The most visible aspect of blame, of course, is what name a disease gets. The World Health Organization has struggled to avoid the names given the Spanish, Hong Kong and Asian flus, instructing its representatives to shift from “swine flu” to “H1N1” to “A (H1N1) S.O.I.V.” (the last four initials stand for “swine-origin influenza virus”) to, recently, “Pandemic (H1N1) 2009.”
Headline writers have rebelled, and ignored them. The truth is that diseases are so complex that pointing blame is useless, simply deflecting blame may be more efficient.
Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01, September, 2009.
Which alternative best describes the general idea of the text?
