Somewhat lacking in diagnostic potency, I'd say.

Perhaps as a consequence of yesterday's post I found myself poking around on Conservapedia again last night and stumbled across something amusing: their article on influenza. Why is it I find an article on contagious disease amusing? Well, for two reasons. The first is that it's really quite impossible to understand why influenza is such a persistent pain in the ass for mankind without possessing at least a basic grasp of evolutionary processes. And, as we all know, according to Conservapedia evolution is complete bunk.* Those of you who keep up with the creationism vs. science battle may be aware of the "micro-evolution vs. macro-evolution" nonsense they like to invoke but, given the recent Lenski Saga I don't think Conservapedia often makes that distinction.

The second reason I find the article amusing, however, has to do with their list of symptoms for the flu. Particularly the last one:



For those of you who can't read the image, that last symptom is "death." Now, granted, the argument could be made that the term "symptom" is sufficiently broad to cover death. That said, I think most of us would class death more as an outcome than a symptom per se. I keep laughing quietly to myself, imagining a doctor commenting, "Well, it could be the swine flu. You have nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and chills... but death is really the clincher. Tell you what- take two aspirin, drink a lot of fluids, and if you develop death, come back in and we'll give you some anti-virals." Then again, given that a few days ago Conservapedia was referring to the swine flu as a parody/joke, I guess this shows progress. No, seriously, not kidding:



So I guess we've learned something today: every now and then even Conservapeons can learn something.


* In fairness, the version of evolution they like to condemn is complete bunk. But, as they aren't advancing arguments against actual evolutionary theory, this doesn't mean much for scientists.