Kinda cool, kinda creepy

[stoneaxe]

This websites algorithms scan social media and other data sources for signs of illness. Displays it on a map

https://www.sickweather.com/live-map.php

[Wetstuff]

It didn't load for me, Stoney  ...but stuff like this bothers me a bit; the world seemed a calmer place when bugs Lyme, or swine flu in Asia, didn't seem to create panic   ...and, the opportunity for charlatans to monetize it.   Snowflake AZ seems an extreme example of what takes place when fear takes over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMzEmvv48pE

I took part in a flu survey that reported weekly outbreaks a few years ago; I stopped looking at it because it created images similar to a hurricane without steering currents. I have not, thankfully, had the flu in three decades.   ...I did get the Shingles vaccine — that's some nasty C'hit.

Jim

[PonoBill]

"Seemed" is a good word. I'm old enough to remember the polio epidemics, measles, mumps, influenza. Killed lots of people. The news trickled out. You'd think that would limit panic, but it was the other way around. People who could afford to fled the cities.

The current crop of crazies has a lot more access, it's not just charlatans, there are lots of people who honestly believe aliens are abducting people and sticking probes up their asses. But now they can build an audience on social media and convince others. Lots of people not getting their kids immunized. Lots of people not getting flu shots.

I think knowledge beats the shit out of ignorance. 80,000 people died of the flu last year, nearly a million people were hospitalized. There doesn't seem to be much panic over that--it's the largest number of deaths and hospitalization on record in 30 years, yet the immunization rate this year is less than 50 percent. Flu vaccination rates for kids in 2017 were about 70 percent, and 80 percent of the kids who died were unvaccinated. I'd have a tough time leaving my kid unvaccinated with numbers like that if I were a parent.

[Zooport]

aliens are abducting people and sticking probes up their asses.

You mean they're not? 

[PonoBill]

If they were I suspect Kim Kardashian would know for sure.