If you're worried about swine flu...

[WilliamPitt]

...read:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-sci-swine-reality30-2009apr30,0,5923718.story

[annabanana]

1. I KNOW. . I saw that earlier and just got more and more annoyed at the hype.

Such a bunch of nervous nellies we are...

[woodsprite]

20. They've closed down the sports center here on campus (UD)

for use as a clinic for students. Staff aren't allowed in their offices if they work in that building, and they've cordoned off the closest parking lots for 'clinic' use. They've also cancelled Gwen Ifill's talk, a rap concert, and some sports teams trips - not classes though. You can go to classes, you just can't have any fun.

At various times I've seen 3 different 'Action News' vans today - all from Channel 6 in Philly. I thought "what are they doing still here" sooooo, I went out to their site. They have a link to the ABC Swine Flu Channel. I didn't even both clicking it.

A friend's hubby was trying to get to class and couldn't park in his usual lot. He asked if he could go out and get some fake tickets because the Fox News van didn't pay for their meter and he wanted to leave them a souvenir. He also wanted to get a pig nose/tail and walk around in view of the cameramen with a "I have swine flu" sign. So, if any of you see him on a report, remember he's not a typical Delawarean. He's a transplant from Buffalo.

So, that's a report from Delaware - where no case has yet been confirmed.

[LeftHander]

2. ***cough*** Haaaaaccck!

Virtual Swine Flu has infected this thread.

[marketcrazy1]

3. nothing like a little reasoable perspective

thanks for this post. I hope it gets lots of readers................

[OneGrassRoot]

4. K&R n/t

[FarCenter]

5. Since it is a new strain, maybe 2 or 3 times the normal 36,000 fatalities

So a rough guess at the moment is that 2 or 3 times as many people will get this than get seasonal flu, due to the fact that it is a new strain and there is less immunity. So at the normal fatality ratio that would result in 70,000 to 110,000 fatalities.

This would not be enough to significantly reduce retirement, social security and Medicare costs going forward. It wouldn't increase life insurance company expenses significantly either.

[nichomachus]

12. Oh, only 100,000 dead -- thanks. I was afraid it was going to affect American Idol

[gkhouston]

18. No, we won't be that lucky. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

6. So, ah, can we return to the Torture Memos....

or is there a "Once an issue has been pushed off the headlines, it stays off" rule? :shrug:

[davsand]

7. This is all well and good, but there is no profit without panic.

Without panic, people don't watch TV, nor do they spend money on stuff like Tamiflu. Mr. Pitt, you simply MUST get your priorities straight and you must work to incite more fear. The corporate bottom line demands it.

:sarcasm:


Laura

[FarCenter]

8. Some countries are still attempting to "contain and mitigate"

Although the US appears to have given up, other countries have not.

The following is from New Zealand. Being fairly isolated, they can carefully monitor international traffic.

---

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10569566&pnum=2

Health minister Tony Ryall said New Zealand was working under a policy of "contain and mitigate".

Mr Ryall said health authorities were trying to contain the virus at the borders but also treating patients with swine flu with isolation and Tami flu.

He said 33 countries around the world had now reported cases of swine flu.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Of course, New Zealand has more to worry about as their flu season

is just beginning, not ending. It could still catch hold and take off there. It may not be as lethal as early reports indicated, but it is still fairly virulent.

[jus_the_facts]

9. Worried....for many reasons....

....other than just the flu. :nopity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63A__INJecI

[femrap]

10. With storm season

approaching in the Eastern half of the nation and the constant threat of Earthquakes, why just be prepared for whatever. It eases the mind...

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/individual/checklist.html

Just buy the stuff and forget about it.

In my particular case I added Wine!!

[Mojorabbit]

11. and then there is this

I think only time will tell.
April 29, 2009
As Swine Flu Spreads, Its Chances to Mutate Increase

TOKYO—Swine flu has reached Asia, with South Korea reporting its first suspected case yesterday. Like the vast majority of other cases outside Mexico so far, it is mild, but virologist Kennedy Shortridge warns that is no reason for complacency. He says that the farther the virus spreads, the more chance it will mix, or reassort, with other flu viruses in circulation and turn into something more lethal. "The prospects for change are considerable and worrying," he says.

Shortridge is a professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong, where he led investigations into the initial emergence of H5N1 avian influenza in 1997, when it killed six of the 18 people it infected. The city squelched that outbreak by slaughtering all 1.4 million chickens and ducks in the territory. H5N1 re-emerged in 2003 and since then has claimed 257 lives while devastating poultry flocks throughout much of Asia and parts of Africa. He has long advocated global cooperation in the surveillance of circulating flu viruses to spot emerging new strains so public health officials could plan a response and drug companies could get a head start in making vaccines.

Shortridge was among the first to suggest that pigs might act as mixing vessels for new combinations of viruses. And the swine flu now spreading from Mexico "fits into the mixing vessel hypothesis," he says.

Analysis of flu specimens by Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, have found that the virus is made up of pieces of human, swine, and avian viruses from North America, Europe, and Asia. The mixture "gives an order of complexity we really don't understand at this point," Shortridge says.

In particular, he says he is concerned that this patched-together virus might not be stable and could easily reassort with other viruses encountered in a human or animal host. The virus has now spread to Asia, where the H5N1 virus is circulating. And he says that in many areas there are strains of human H1N1 in circulation that are resistant to Tamiflu, the drug of choice for treating the disease in humans. He speculates that swapping one or more genes among these viruses could result in a virus that is more pathogenic or more easily passed from person to person or both.

As a precaution, Shortridge suggests sequencing as many viral samples as quickly as possible to watch for any telltale changes in the virus—a massive job requiring worldwide cooperation. He says such cooperation seems to be off to a good start, thanks to the experience of dealing with the 2003 SARS crisis and recent efforts to prepare for an influenza pandemic. "There is a success story in this in that the world is alert" to the possibility of a pandemic, he says. Still, he adds, even better collaboration and communication will be required in the face of a threat that could change overnight.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/

[unblock]

13. on average you're more likely to die from the drive to the pharmacy for some tamiflu

than you are to die from 2009 h1n1.

[NeedleCast]

19. You're more likely to die in a head-on automobile vs train collision

than to die of Swine flu in the US.

[Matariki]

14. shhhhh, you'll ruin people's fun.

[Matariki]

16. What do you think drives the morbid fascination with disaster?

Dissatisfaction with life? Misanthropy?

I'm really fascinated by human fascination with apocalyptic scenarios and doom prophecies. Many people seem far more invested and interested in an idea of future devastation than ideas of a happy future. I've never completely understood that.

[starroute]

17. Need for excitement, I think

Our ancestors evolved for a situation where they might be attacked by predators at any moment -- or might have to jump up at a moment's notice to run after prey of their own. Our lives have been a lot more secure and well-organized for at least the last 50,000 years, but we have millions of years of instinct going back prior to that -- and it's also possible that a continuing desire for excitement has been a positive factor for bringing about progress, which would help keep it in our genes.

Whatever the cause, it's undeniably true that humans do feel a need for excitement -- and that excitement also helps make their lives seem more meaningful. This is especially apparent with some of the fundamentalists, who are prepared to cast everything they see around them as a battle against the forces of evil or scan the daily headlines for signs of impending rapture.

But we're not exempt from it on the left, either -- as witness the periodic tempests in a teacup that regularly overtake DU.

[DemReadingDU]

21. Based on the article, looks mild now. But with time and mutations

it could get a lot worse, maybe next winter
:shrug: