World Youth Day responsible for your lurgy?

Don’t get me started on World Youth Day. Oh….allright then.

It was not World Youth Day. It was Catholic World Youth Day. The NSW Government gave about $87 million of taxpayers money (I am happy to be corrected) to host the Pope’s promotional tour.

I strongly recommend every other religion (no matter how obscure) demand the same amount of funding to hold it’s own World Youth Day and see how it goes.

Invite the world’s holiest people to a party and they spend nothing – World Youth Day.
Invite the world’s unholiest people to a party and they spend a year’s savings – Summernats.

I think one of the reasons there were reported cold/flu outbreaks in pilgrims was because a number of them came underdressed for Winter.

New Yeah said :

Now that the pilgrims are gone it is safe to put the boot in. When the singing hordes were in town the pillars of industry were praising them for their purchasing power and the boost it gave to the economy.

How times change…

To be fair, it wasn’t the healthcare industry that was trumpeting on about WYD being a huge boon to the economy. Public health warnings (hardly “putting the boot in”!) about outbreaks within pilgrim groups were made during the celebrations (long before they all left) – it’s just that the media is catching up with it now, rather belatedly.

World Youth Day caused a massive black hole in the NSW budget and has pushed the state to the brink of bankruptcy. There was no boost to business, in fact the reverse happened – many businesses in the Sydney CBD have been forced to close as the city was barricaded off. The pilgrims came with one shirt and a ten dollar note and didn’t change either. Now we know they brought in a whole lot of exotic germs. We’ll all be paying for World Youth Day for a very long time in more ways than one.

Now that the pilgrims are gone it is safe to put the boot in. When the singing hordes were in town the pillars of industry were praising them for their purchasing power and the boost it gave to the economy.

How times change…

The Doc commented it has been a significantly worse winter than usual for serious coughs/bad cold viruses. Certainly I’ve lost my voice twice and can’t seem to shake a lingering, hacking cough; and all three kids have had it too, with my 17 yo son was hospitalised with a tonsillitis complication to boot. (Wasn’t flu though, as I had the free flu shot offered at my workplace. Not that this was any consolation when we were all feeling dreadful!)

No flu, but my whole household had the worst 3 week cold ever a few weeks ago. Half of work had it too.

There were a few outbreaks (influenza and viral gastro) within pilgrim groups in Sydney. We didn’t experience a similar influx in the ACT, however. Anecdotally, this year has been much better than 2007 in so far as influenza goes – although we seem to have had a later peak in 2008.

Pfft, i got the flu, and i seriously cant recall anyone close to me going to world youth week or anything..

nice way to point the finger..