Thoughts On Swine Flu, PLUS Kanye West And Jay-Z, “H.A.M.”

Remember a couple years ago, how freaked out everyone was about swine flu? Well, it turns out, everyone that got it was actually really lucky (everyone who survived, I mean). According to a BBC report on a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine,

“In the nine patients they studied who had caught swine flu during the pandemic, they found the infection had triggered the production of a wide range of antibodies that are only very rarely seen after seasonal flu infections or flu vaccination. Five antibodies isolated by the team could fight all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the devastating ‘Spanish flu’ strain from 1918 which killed up to 50m people, plus a potentially deadly bird flu H5N1 strain. The researchers believe the ‘extraordinarily’ powerful antibodies were created as the body learned how to fight the new infection with swine flu using its old memory of how to fight off other flu viruses.”

This reminds me of the time when I was in college when my friend Todd told me that smoking “a couple of cigarettes a day” was actually good for you because it was like “exercise for your lungs.” (He had heard this from someone as he followed the Grateful Dead tour the previous summer.) It also seems a little bit like Ross Douthat’s argument that racism and intolerance actually makes America a better country. Except that this is probably true? Y’know, like Kanye said. (That’s an original Kanye quote, right?)

Thinking back, 2009 swine flu might have been the greatest global pandemic of all time!

Oh, also, Kanye’s new song with Jay-Z came out today. It’s called “H.A.M.” Here it is, if you’d like to listen to it.