Swine Flu Advice

Claim:   E-mails provide helpful advice about swine flu.

LEGEND

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2009]

Swine Flu Advice

If you wake up looking like this, don't go to work!

Origins:   We've received a fair number of "Is this real?" inquiries from readers about the e-mail reproduced above, and it's one of those items that leaves us scratching our heads and asking ourselves, "Is what real?"

Swine flu is a real malady, and those who contract it might experience a variety of symptoms

(e.g., unusual tiredness, headache, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath, coughing, loss of appetite, aching muscles, diarrhea, vomiting), but actually turning into a human-porcine hybrid is not among them.

Presumably, most of our correspondents are questioning the reality of whatever is pictured in the accompanying photograph. The picture is, in effect, a real photograph of an imaginary object — it's the work of artist Patricia Piccinini, a piece identified as "Surrogate (for the Northern Hairynosed Wombat)." Ms. Piccinini's genetic manipulation-themed sculptures have perplexed many viewers to the extent that her work is the subject of a separate article on our site.

We've also received quite a few inquiries about a similar item:

This item, too, is mere humor — porcine punnery playing on the duality of the word "spam" carrying a meaning of both "unwanted, intrusive e-mail" and "a canned food product made from pork."

Last updated:   15 September 2009