MERS, as if anything else mattered...

I picked up the Korea MERS Times, I found that a 5th person has died of MERS. The Korea MERS Times and Korea MERS media overall have been fixated on MERS. It got so bad that I have even bought a mask for the KC Mini-Me at my office.

Meanwhile, also in South MERS Korea...

197 cancer deaths per day (2010 statistic)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629358/

40 suicides per day (2013 statistic)

http://beyondhallyu.com/culture/south-korea-the-suicide-capital-of-the-world/

16 traffic related deaths per day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

158 die every day from smoking related deaths

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140912000435

60 rapes reported per day

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130423001036

3.7 murders committed daily (2010)

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/113_72077.html

2.4 rapes and sexual assaults committed daily by senior citizens

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/05/113_178648.html

If the media focused on murders or rapes in South Korea the way it has gone wildin' about MERS, it would seem that this country was on the brink of disaster. The schools would be shut down and dynamited so no one would try to go, women would be afraid to leave home but also afraid to be home alone, husbands would be afraid to leave their wives or children home, and we'd kill ourselves because staying home we'd be afraid we would die of fan death.

Will update this with more recent or relevant statistics from others.

Thanks to Daniel Lee for this precious photo, which he says was probably a joke...

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I'm not a medical professional--or a reporter--so I could be wrong about this, but swine flu, mad cow disease, bird flu, SARS, Ebola, foot-and-mouth disease, West Nile virus, MERS...