Twenty Five Thousand Four Hundred and Seven

[NeedleCast]

25,407: That's the number of cases of confirmed "standard" flu positively identified in the US this year. Now, that's only cases identified in 178,393 test cases. The population of the United States is roughly 300,000,000.



20: That's the number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the US.


As is stands right now, your chance of getting new super pandemic super swine flu in the US is considerably lower than the chance of you dying in a shark attack.

[hedgehog]

1. The point of all the fuss is to make sure those odds don't change!

[BeatleBoot]

2. Thank You!

[NeedleCast]

3. Why isn't the same fuss made about more standard strains of flu?

Standard strains of flu are responsible for 36,000 deaths per year. Where's the media frenzy about it?

[hedgehog]

4. You mean you haven't noticed the annual DU flame wars regarding

the safety/efficacy/need for and annual flu shot?




It's all a plot by Big Pharma, don'cha you know.

[NeedleCast]

5. Well that goes for anything medical

Vaccines, breast feeding, smoking, weight, etc. etc.

No one's opinion is more important than mine when it comes to what everyone else should do, and if you disagree, you're a Freeper.

:P

[stray cat]

8. Thats even with a vaccine available that often provides some protection

[Jim Pivonka]

6. Comparison of this virus to endemic virus is inappropriate

Vaccinatin does not cover this flu virus - NO ONE has been vaccinated.
The two swine flue strains included in this new, four virus hybrid virus, are new - unfamiliar, not seen before, unknown quantities.
The effects of this combination are unknwown and not susceptible to prediction.
The known fatality rate at the point of origin, Mexico, has been atypically high for flu. Though there are hypotheses for why this is so that do not depend on high virulence of the virus, those are untested. The raw data, whild suspect, is scary.

Since this flu has only just begun to infect anyone, and is still spreading, comparison with the rates of infection and consequences of infection of endemic virus strains is inappropriate. Rates of infection for endemic strains have no relationship, or predictive capacity, to rates of infection for new virus strains.

[NeedleCast]

9. Feel Free to Panic

I'm at the point where I'm just going to encourage it. So please, by all means, panic. Evacuate major population centers. Head for your underground bunkers.

Whatever gets me a few days off from work in the warm weather.

If you do choose to abandon your home, please post your address...I'm coming to rob you.

[readmoreoften]

11. This person responded to your complete inability to comprehend science. They did not

suggest that anyone should "panic." Do you understand the difference between "reasonable precaution" and "panic"? I don't think you do.

[NeedleCast]

13. Yes

Here's the difference.

I've reacted like anyone else should react to a virus that has infected 20 people in three days. By doing nothing that I wouldn't normally do.

You've posted dozens of threads every time any news source, confirmed or otherwise, posts anything about this subject and have pitched a fit anytime someone points out that you might be over reacting.

[stray cat]

7. 20,000 - 40,000 die per year of influenza/pneumonia -

key thing about percentages - no matter what the percentage is your screwed if you end up on the wrong side of the line.

[readmoreoften]

10. The stock market is not crashing. It's not like its going to hit 9000. All you people are suckers.

1) Another self-serving post meant to put people down for taking reasonable precautions--especially those who live in areas near the border.
2) You're not an epidemiologist, nor are you a mathematician, and you've got a pretty lousy track record at prediction, so maybe you should leave the analysis to more knowledgeable people.

You should try admitting that you don't know something for a change. It's really liberating. Go ahead say it:
"I am not an epidemiologist. I should not interpret numbers that I do not understand."

[NeedleCast]

12. I am not an epidemiologist

Nor do I claim to be. I'm am able to look at statistics and realize that 20 cases in a population of roughly three hundred million is no an epidemic. It's not even a cause for alarm, as the US averages several hundred cases of other flu strains/year. I'm also terribly concerned about the huge morbidity rate in the US, currently at zero. That's a lot!

You aren't any of those things either, but that hasn't stopped you from posting 25 threads a day about the 2nd coming of the Black Death.

[BlooInBloo]

14. omg!

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. I wonder . .

.
.
.

The numbers of infections do not seem scary,

but the range . .

In a very short time,

this strain of influenza has traveled from Mexico, through the United States,

and now also reported cases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia.

These are KNOWN

I'm sure there are some unknowns.

While I do not see any need for panic,

intelligent concern and vigilance is warranted IMO.