Skip to content

Oinkbarf Pandemic! An Intellectual Response to Swine Flu

2009-05-04 (said on 2009-05-03 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 1 day later) · letter vlog · John · 3:20 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion, heavy topic

John, a self-described hypochondriac, says swine flu turned out less deadly than first reported and argues pandemics scare us because they make us face oblivion and the futility of effort, which we should balance with the necessity to struggle.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting from an airport on Sunday, May 3; topic: swine flu, but first news

00:00:19 — Second Melbourne event, Sydney June 3; Paper Towns wins an Edgar Award; what to do with a Poe bust; Hank's birthday

  • ★★ John tells Nerdfighters who couldn't get a ticket to the Melbourne event that there is a second event, and that he will be in Sydney on June 3. — 00:00:19 · Nerdfighteria, Australia
  • ★★★ John's Paper Towns won an Edgar Award on Thursday night, given by the Mystery Writers of America to the year's best mystery novels, so he now owns a bust of Poe. — 00:00:27 · Paper Towns · also in: What Could You Do with a Poe Bust?!
  • ★★ John asks Nerdfighters to answer in comments what you can do with a bust of Edgar Allan Poe. (playful) — 00:00:39 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John reminds Hank his birthday is Tuesday, says he'll get him a little something, and hopes Nerdfighters will make videos too. (hedged) — 00:00:46 · Hank Green, Nerdfighteria

00:00:58 — John's fear of new diseases; swine flu reports (10%, ages 25-45, 1918) and the later revision (about 1%)

  • ★★ John is somewhat terrified of new and strange diseases, he thinks because of an easy-seeming college science class, 'AIDS, Ebola, and Emerging Viruses', unsuitable for hypochondriacs. (hedged) — 00:00:58

  • ★★ John calls swine flu 'oinkbarf', joking it is the technical name, and admits he probably uses the name because he is still a bit terrified of it. (playful) — 00:01:20 · oinkbarf

    “oinkbarf”

  • ★★ John says swine flu (H1N1) first appeared as a flu in Mexico spreading easily between people and killing 10% of its victims, most aged 25 to 45. — 00:01:27

    • a number in question (doubtful): "10%" — check against the recording (swine flu case fatality rate)
  • ★★ John says the 1918 pandemic also killed people aged 25 to 45 and killed more people than all of World War II. — 00:01:34
    • check: more people than all of World War II — doubtful (spanish flu death toll)
  • ★★ John says it now appears people may have overreacted: swine flu kills closer to 1% of victims, and people generally rather than only those 25 to 45. (hedged) — 00:01:52

00:02:10 — Why pandemics frighten us: oblivion and the futility of effort; Fitzgerald; wash your hands and keep struggling

  • ★★ John grants an obvious reason to fear it: if 10% of the infected needed hospitalisation, hospitals would quickly run out of beds. (hypothetical) — 00:02:12
  • ★★★ John suspects pandemic fear goes deeper: pandemics make us think that everyone will die and that one day no humans will be left to remember there were humans. (hedged) — 00:02:21
  • ★★★ F. Scott Fitzgerald (quoted): Quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald: the test of a first-rate intelligence is holding two opposing ideas at once; he must balance the futility of effort and the necessity to struggle. — 00:02:39
  • ★★ John says we generally respond to the futility of effort by ignoring it; he doesn't think about a day when no one reads Shakespeare, let alone his books. (playful) — 00:02:51
  • ★★★ John thinks pandemics make us afraid not of death but of oblivion, forcing us to grapple with the futility of effort. (hedged) — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ John tells Hank and Nerdfighters to wash their hands, cover their coughs, and balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle; he will keep struggling. — 00:03:09 · Nerdfighteria

Humor (significant)

  • The Edgar Award means John now owns a bust of Edgar Allan Poe. — 00:00:35

    “That's right, I own a bust.”

  • Listing names for H1N1 flu, John adds his own coinage. — 00:01:20

    “I think oinkbarf is its technical name.”

  • Explaining why flu deaths among 25-to-45-year-olds alarm him. — 00:01:44

    “but it so happens that I am between 25 and 45!”

  • After arguing pandemics make us afraid of oblivion, not death, John adds another reason. — 00:03:07

    “Also, they make us barf, which isn't fun either.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 2009 swine flu pandemic · death anxiety · F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also: People: Edgar Allan Poe · William Shakespeare

Works: Paper Towns

Organizations: Edgar Award · Mystery Writers of America

Terms: oinkbarf

Places: Australia · Melbourne · Mexico · Sydney

Events: Spanish flu · World War II

Also centred on 2009 swine flu pandemic: H1N1 Vaccine Fears

Also centred on death anxiety: Our Grandfather · You Will Be Forgotten ...And That's OK · The Necessity to Struggle / The Futility of Effort · It's About a YouTuber with Cancer · Let's Talk About Death

Also centred on F. Scott Fitzgerald: Our Capacity for Wonder: A Review

← Previous: Important (Temporary) Video · Next → HANKO DE MAYO! Happy Birthday Hank!