How can a joke make you sick?

[innerbrat]

I've generally managed to get to the point where I don't expect the following things from any of the free newspapers I read on the tube:
- factual accuracy
- commitment to journalistic integrity
- basic grasp of English

But today, for the first time ever, I actually got my pen out and corrected something in The London Paper. I was getting it out

Comments

[minnesattva]

Hear, hear! I'm sorry that the difference between viruses and bacteria is still as misunderstood as the importance of jokes to human extelligence, but I'm glad there are eloquent (and angry) people such as you to say them.

[canadabear]

This reminds me how much I hate "I learned it through osmosis!" jokes.

[immortalthief]

Way to go. Is there anyway to contact the newspaper to request that they make a correction or appology or something? Because you are right.

[matgb]

Response of It's just a joke is predicted from the scientifically illiterate junior staff that would open it pretty much guaranteed :-(

[immortalthief]

:(

[sdelmonte]

The problem with outlawing evolution is that bacteria are notorious for ignoring the law, and evolve anyway. :)

More seriously, MRSA has been spreading rather effectively in the high schools of the Northeast US, but I don't think that any of the news reports on the matter have bothered to explain just what the MR really means.

[notorious_oit]

A gentleman in my area just died last week of a MRSA infection.

As a health-care worker, it astounds me how many people don't wash their hands or use the antiseptic foam that's available in every exam room. The last hospital I worked for actually had a tracking program that tracked the occurrences of MRSA versus the amount of antiseptic foam used...when the usage of the foam went up, MRSA cases decreased dramatically.

[aintesduck]

I was just talking with someone the other day about how we're pretty sure that no newspapers or magazines actually use PROOFREADERS anymore. It seems like they just throw the articles through spell-check and hope for the best. Another thing to "thank" computers for.