Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Censorship Doesn't Just Stifle Speech — It Can Cause Disease To Spread

Posted by Soulskill on from the information-wants-to-be-free-and-so-do-viruses dept.

Lasrick writes "Maryn McKenna at Wired explores fears of a pandemic of MERS after October's hajj to Saudi Arabia, the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holy sites: 'The reason is MERS: Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease that has been simmering in the region for months. The virus is new, recorded in humans for the first time in mid-2012. It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it. And it is mysterious, far more so than it should be—because Saudi Arabia, where the majority of cases have clustered, has been tight-lipped about the disease's spread, responding slowly to requests for information and preventing outside researchers from publishing their findings about the syndrome.'"

3 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People think you're saying MRSA, and they tune out. I've seen it happening over and over now. I'm not the only one to notice. It's obvious. If anyone reading this has any power to change what the media uses as a name for this, please, for the love of all that is good, get the name of this disease changed.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
    1. Re:Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up by Quasimodem · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have confirmed that players, Carl Nicks and Lawrence Tynes, are being treated for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

      Perhaps the infection will get a more user-friendly name like Buccaneers' disease, sort of like Legionnaires disease did for legionella pneumophila.

      If they don't, they should at least find a way to throw a couple of vowels into the acronym, like SARS. Civilians can't seem to really get behind fearing something, or taking precautions against it, unless they can pronounce the darn name.

  2. Re:Freedom for WHAT CLASS? by VortexCortex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hehe yeah right AFTER we all get our personal maintenance-free unique flying unicorn pony (or pig if you so prefer, oink ftw).

    Yeah, that's the point though isn't it? Blind following of any ideology is foolish. Absolutism is the true enemy. Look at the way science works, testing the correct paths by experimentation and proven results, not just baseless theories.

    In other words, absolutist notions like "Communism" or pure "Free Market Capitalism" are the personal maintenance-free unique flying unicorn ponies and pigs. Neither Neigh-sayer nor Oinker will admit that perhaps the best way forward could be a far less lofty goal: Simply riding unicorn-pig hybrids safely along the ground instead. Additionally: Magical Bacon!