Swine flu

Anyone got it yet? Seems like what all the cool kids are doing thse days.

Seriously, is there something I'm missing? Is the swine flu some kind of crazy superflu that causes you to bleed uncontrollably from the butthole and cough up your skeleton? Is a couple hundred cases really worthy of 24/7 news coverage? Do I need to preemptively kill my loved ones to save them the coming horrors of the swine flu?

Hype or legitimate dealie?

jg

I liked the article on Yahoo yesterday. It was roughly "The swine flu could be the next bubonic plague, potentially decimating all human life on this planet... or it might not kill anyone at all."

It was almost like, "Wild dogs might break into your house and eat your family... or they might not."

It's certainly something that to be aware of. They upped the death toll in Mexico to 149. I haven't heard a real figure on total infected, but there's been over 2000 hospital admissions because of it in Mexico in just two weeks. Let's assume that the death rate and hospitalizations are proportionally under/over reported. That's still about a 7% mortality rate. Not hard to extrapolate some big numbers on that, especially if it goes like the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu outbreak that killed 50 million people. Interestingly, there's been reports that some of the deaths are in young/healthy adults.

Stop berkeleyin' the pigs!

We're done being afraid of flesh-eating disease, mad cow, ebola and bird flu so it's time for the media to start something new.

Ban dihydrogen oxide I say! It's worse than all of these put together.

Shawn

I had monkey pox.. but I'm better now.

The last major outbreak was 1918-1919. Deaths in the US topped 500000. Worldwide 50-100 million. Had a scare in 1970s the flu killed one, the vaccine killed hundreds. I wouldn't worry too much though. The world is a lot cleaner than it was in 1918.

You have to remember that the Spanish Flu was pre-antibiotics, and the killer in influenza cases is the bacterial superinfection, rather than the actual influenza virus itself, in most cases. Now, in the Mexico case, which the Isralies are calling "Mexican Flu" because, you know, pigs are un-clean, 2K hospitalized and 150 dead, but how many have the flu but didn't get hospitalized? A hundred thousand? Hard to say. So now your statistics could be 1 death out of a thousand, which is a lot better than 7 in a hundred.

Some things are interesting. The end of April is pretty far outside of influenza season. From what I've read (and real info is scarce at this time), it's a bad case of the flu. Influenza kills thousands here in the US every year. So, if this kills one thousand, how are we going to tell the difference? But "One Thousand Dead From Swine Flu" is a huge headline. "Ten Thousand Dead From Influenza" is not news.

I remember the Swine Flu in the 70's. I remember President Ford (who voted him into office?) getting his flu shot on TV. I always suspected some ulterior motive for that whole incident. 20 sick recruits doesn't fit with the response that was made.

Anyone remember SARS? If the swine flu takes off it will be a very serious issue and shouldn't be taken lightly. The real issue is the closeness between human and pig DNA and the possibility of the flu mutating and becoming more contagious or deadly. This might be the real deal, and my old man brought me 3 boxes of medical face masks home unrelatedly that his work was getting rid of, I'm ready, are you?

Dr. Hess wrote: You have to remember that the Spanish Flu was pre-antibiotics, and the killer in influenza cases is the bacterial superinfection, rather than the actual influenza virus itself, in most cases. Now, in the Mexico case, which the Isralies are calling "Mexican Flu" because, you know, pigs are un-clean, 2K hospitalized and 150 dead, but how many have the flu but didn't get hospitalized? A hundred thousand? Hard to say. So now your statistics could be 1 death out of a thousand, which is a lot better than 7 in a hundred. Some things are interesting. The end of April is pretty far outside of influenza season. From what I've read (and real info is scarce at this time), it's a bad case of the flu. Influenza kills thousands here in the US every year. So, if this kills one thousand, how are we going to tell the difference? But "One Thousand Dead From Swine Flu" is a huge headline. "Ten Thousand Dead From Influenza" is not news. I remember the Swine Flu in the 70's. I remember President Ford (who voted him into office?) getting his flu shot on TV. I always suspected some ulterior motive for that whole incident. 20 sick recruits doesn't fit with the response that was made.

The word I heard is the 70s came down to politics. It was an election year and everyone wanted to look good on TV. Contrary to the recommendations of the pharmaceutical companies the feds rushed the vaccine and didn't have all the problems worked out when they started injections. Caused a good number of people to die getting vaccinated for a pandemic that never showed up.

The news is reporting this because it makes good headlines. The feds have declared a "state of emergency" to cover their butts and show how concerned about your welfare they are. Makes good PR.

^^ I'm just a little jaded when it comes to the newsies and the politicians.

It's actually Zombie flu.

Aim for the head, burn the bodies. Remember, if a loved one starts to turn...do the right thing.

I'm not sure this isn't just a case of an underdeveloped country and poor hygiene and medical practices, BUT the real problem is, as someone else said, pig DNA is very close to human DNA and all kinds of nasty spin offs can develop. This one might be controllable, but when will a mutation spin off that isn't so controllable?

That was the big worry on the bird flu, would it mutate into something else. Odds were against the bird flu, but for it in the swine flu.

149 dead in Mexico? Don't the drug dealers kill that many every day down there?

At least the WHO is taking it seriously. It's better for public welfare to get the word out.

If I come down with it I'll post it on the board.

I've already been seeing people walking around with masks on.

For years I've been coughed on everyday by the unwashed from many nations, If i haven't caught anything by now I don't think I will, and if i do catch something I plan to get a lawyer to blame it on the 9/11 dust I have in a jar in my dresser.

Nobody is talking about the economy this week......hmmmmmm

aussiesmg wrote: Nobody is talking about the economy this week......hmmmmmm

If I'd have cashed in my Ford stock today (I bought at $2) I'd have been able to pay for our summer cruise, the new windows in the birdroom, and still had leftover what I started with to stick back into the next hot comer. Right now I'm funding the trip and the room on a couple of cards that are at low interest rates and will get payed completely off in 2-4months, and will also get me lots of sweet points that I can use for airline miles and overpriced electronics.

'Merican dream, baby.

jg

Dr. Hess wrote: I remember the Swine Flu in the 70's. I remember President Ford (who voted him into office?) getting his flu shot on TV. I always suspected some ulterior motive for that whole incident. 20 sick recruits doesn't fit with the response that was made.

Even though you and my dad on different ends of the political spectrum; you and he would get along.

okay, so whos going to start wearing one of these to work??

im sure most of us have at least one in the tool box, time buy a new set of cartridges before the prices spike...

funny or scary, you decide.....

Hype.

20 cases in the US with no deaths.

"ZomG the computers will think its 1900 and start a world ending nuclear holocaust!!!11!!!!11!11"

If a virus has my name on it, it's gonna get me no matter what I do. So I am not going to get all worked up over it. Like George Bowland's bumper sticker says: 'I drive too fast at hillclimbs to worry about my cholesterol'.

We are also seeing the 'Katrina aftermath effect': Bush couldn't stop the hurricane, the mayor down there stood around looking down his pants rather than mobilizing his citizenry, the emergency response was delayed due to infrastructure damage, the mainstream media showed numerous pictures of these poor suffering people and decided it was all Bush's fault.

So now we are seeing a disproportionate response to this flu so that the Obama gubmint won't look like a bunch of goobers if something beyond their control happens. Yeah, I threw politics in there.

Doc Hess mentioned the Israeli swine flu name thing: there's a story making the rounds that an Islamic imam said the name 'swine flu' was insulting to Islamics because they don't eat pork. So he suggested it be renamed the 'Mexican flu'. Wonder what the Mexicans think of all that?

CNN and our local news each did 20-25 minutes straight this morning on the coming terror of the megaflu. I'm comforted by knowing that more folks have won major lottery jackpots or been killed in vending machine accidents than have been killed by the insaneoflu.

Isn't there real news taking place? What are those wacky Somali pirates up to? How's Casey Anthony? Has Angelina Jolie bought any new babies? Come one, give me some real info.

jg

EDIT: Just heard the "Mexican Flu" thing on the news, too. The anchor said that symptoms of the Mexican Flu were fever, sweating, weakness and diahrrea. I think he meant "Mexican Food" not Mexican flu.

Dr. Hess wrote: Some things are interesting. The end of April is pretty far outside of influenza season. From what I've read (and real info is scarce at this time), it's a bad case of the flu. Influenza kills thousands here in the US every year. So, if this kills one thousand, how are we going to tell the difference? But "One Thousand Dead From Swine Flu" is a huge headline. "Ten Thousand Dead From Influenza" is not news.

Thanks you, Hess, for posting that.

It does bear repeating.

E-

We were at the bookstore last night. One magazine at the checkout had the headline "Brad buys Angelina $150,000 gift!". The next one read"Angelina and Brad split!"

She apparently didn't like the gift.