Comments on: Pandemic urban legend update from Dr. Puls

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:02:30 +0000

I had never heard this until today. It sounded fishy, so I researched for really only a few minutes and found this letter. I do think calling people idiots is a bit much. With what’s going on in the world (e.g., politics, economy, etc.), people are a bit jumpy and paranoid. The internet is a two-edged sword–information can travel like wildfire (or like a pandemic that kills 20% of the world, I suppose), but you can also use it to quickly find out if there’s any truth to what you see. In this case, there is a bit of truth, but greatly exaggerated.

By: bfwebster

bfwebster — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:12:16 +0000

As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t dismiss the idea of a pandemic — the subject itself is one that I’ve tracked for over 30 years, which is exactly why the e-mail sounded false (or at least highly distorted). The Church has plenty of good, rational, and reasonable preparation advice for a pandemic at providentliving.org.

However, to take patently false information (e.g., mandatory 3 month quarantine for non-infected people, 20% of the world’s population dying) and to pass it off under the Church’s name is a slander upon the Church and damages its very professional approach to personal and family preparedness. It is also professionally (and I suspect personally) embarrassing for Dr. Puls to put such wild statements into her mouth. ..bruce..

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:37:42 +0000

Well, I appreciated getting the “false” email, or “misleading” It got my food supply in short order. I did some searching on the Internet from other sites and I do think there is cause for concern. First, having the Prophet and First Presidency commission Dr. Puls for this problem has my attention. WHO is concerned. I read about a governor’s conference about planning for it. I watched a video of BYU-Idaho about how they have prepared for it. Before you dismiss this pandemic idea, I think you should read some more on the internet about it. I believe it is better to be prepared and have nothing happen, than to not be prepared and have it happen.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:34:45 +0000

I forgot to add: This is the height of irony, btw – a mass e-mail distribution to combat misinformation in a different mass e-mailing.

True or bogus – ya’ gotta love it.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:32:31 +0000

Thanks, Bruce, for posting this. People are so gullible – and forwarding mass distribution e-mails is stupid.

As my oldest son would say, “There are no stupid mass e-mails – only stupid people who forward mass e-mails.”

By: Helaman

Helaman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:01:53 +0000

It’s too bad so many people either promote emails like this or blindly except them. I end up getting a number of emails from people, and I end up – with about 99% of them having to reply back with a snopes.com link disproving, or proving specific references to show them the email is fake.

It’s even worse when they are LDS based chainmails…
Though I haven’t seen this email make the rounds, I’ll keep an eye out for it…

Thanks for the heads up!

By: Ardis

Ardis — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:50:47 +0000

Bravo for finding and promoting this.

By: The newest LDS urban legend? [updated] | Adventures in Mormonism

The newest LDS urban legend? [updated] | Adventures in Mormonism — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:30:58 +0000

[...] Posted under Current events, LDS Society, Main, Preparedness[IMPORTANT NOTE: There appears to be an official disclaimer from Dr. Puls regarding the e-mail [...]