Swine Flu - We're all going to die
 

I'm not sure why there's no swine flu thread, but it is a void that must be filled. Discussion points include:

-Do you know someone with swine flu?
-We're supposed to call it H1N1 flu now, because it's upsetting the Jews/Muslims/Pigs/Others.
-Have schools/businesses closed in your area?
-Is this a gross overreaction?


Just today, a high school in the DC area was closed due to swine flu. There are posters everywhere in my office telling folks to wash their hands, and this morning Metro was broadcasting a calmly voiced woman advising commuters on how to avoid the flu. It's all beginning to remind me of a certain episode of Sliders.

1: Most people with a healthy constitution run no severe risk if infected by the swine flu. It behaves like any other mundane influenza and is succeptible to common, over-the-counter antivirals. At most, you'll feel like crap for 2-5 days, then life will resume as normal. The bigger concern is not infecting those around you, should you actually contract the virus.

2: Fuck the Jews/Muslims/Pork farmers. It jumped from pigs, so it's named after the source. There was no political uproar from ornithologists and chicken farmers when the avian flu was a concern 3-4 years ago. It's a word. If you're offended by a simple word with no slanderous intent, you're weak of mind.

3: So far there are no reported cases in the Western New York area, so nothing has shut down. Everyone is on watch and that's it. The hospitals and doctors here have had plenty of time to arm themselves for an outbreak, and most people will get through it without severe complication.

4: I am personally a little more concerned than the average person should be. After my transplant, my immune system is purposely compromised. I'm prone to the swine flu and if I should ever catch it, I may require hospitalization to ensure that it doesn't grow out of control. I'll likely need more antiviral medication than the average person since my white cell count is still low. The swine flu hits the respiratory system and that's where I'm most vulnerable. I already had a supply of hand sanitizer and face masks, just as a general precaution against everything, so as long as I'm not stupid, I can minimize my exposure. On the downside, I return to my job this Sunday, where I'm more exposed to the public. If my town does report infection, my doctors may force me to take a leave for my own protection. I don't think that'd qualify for disability.

I think what's driven fears of ths swine flu is that, like the Spanish Flu, it may kill a disproportionate portion of young and healthy adults, by overstimulating their immune systems through a cytokine storm.

With that said, there is no evidence that this is the case. I heard Tamiflu is effective against the flu. As for its fatality rate, it just isn't deadly outside of Mexico. And the one fatality in Texas is that of a Mexican toddler.

_________

If you are concerned about infection but don't want to interrupt working, you may want to invest in a respirator (N95 class or higher). While it's not a sure-fire preventive tool, it will help mitigate the risk a bit.

_________

As far as the name is concerned, I think Swine Flu is a dandy designation. Of course, the World Health wonks want to call it the North American Flu. Any objections to that, North Americans? :p

Two people on my campus have confirmed to have Swine Flu.

I ordered a pizza.

Obviously, the Bilderberg group has developed a virus specificially to kill off illegal immigrants.

I work in a deli, Zerg. It's just not good P.R. to walk around the place in a respirator.

I dunno; after that Domino's thing, they'd probably appreciate it.

Just because he's wearing a respirator/hazmat suit doesn't mean he didn't unzip when no one was looking and shake the salami around in there.

It should be pointed out that H1N1 is the general subtype that this specific flu strain falls under. It's the most common kind of flu in the world and also includes Spanish flu.

I have no idea why people are proposing that as an alternate to "swine flu".

In normal times, I'd agree. But given your particular circumstances and the current swine flu scare, I don't think customers would mind one bit if the dude slicing up their specialty meats is wearing a protective mask.

I certainly won't!

Maybe I'm stereotyping here, but you live in an Asian country, and anytime there's some sort of outbreak (like SARS), you folks break out the face masks. It's very unusual to see someone outside of a hospital wearing a face mask in North America, unless they're immuno-compromised or they're Michael Jackson.

I think because when most people think avian or bird they don't immediately think of chicken. When you say swine there's not a whole lot of other choices than delicious pig.

LA Cops?

Two schools in towns about 20 minutes away from where I live have had closings due to what they believe is Swine Flu. They're testing 4 students of Yale to see if their flu symptoms are 'the real deal'.

Original Source

I had a friend in Cali worried that she had it... doctors told her it was regular old flu.

I know Lehah's answer already because we've discussed it, but is the general consensus that they're blowing this way out of proportion? Its not exactly The Black Death here. I'm already a little sick of hearing about it.

The pork industry is pissed because some people are quitting pork over this, which is stupid and will allow me to reap the rewards of discounted bacon.

However, the Jew thing is bullshit. One guy, who is a religious nutjob, is saying that. It's not my fault that he's the deputy Health Minister! I guess Israel didn't think a proper Health Minister would be worth investing in until the last minute, so the Prime Minister of Israel just nominated a guy from the Yahdut Hatora since he owed them a favor or something. He didn't even want the job. He doesn't know anything about health, or about foreign relations either since he blamed the flu on Mexicans.

Anyway, the point is, no one thinks of flus as kosher or not kosher.

Also I think the guy whose desk is in front of mine has swine flu. I will report with additional information as it comes.

I thought the masks kept you from spreading it, but you can still get it if you're wearing one.

-Yes. No one Finnish, though.

-No. It is basically the same virus as 1918 Flu Pandemic, which is better known as Spanish flu, because of the first public appearances were in Spain. Even though it did start in the USA of WWI, and somewhere else too before Spain, the first reported cases were from infected outside the warring nations (Spain was neutral at the time). Thus, Spanish flu. Of course there are other naming conventions of diseases, but with this particular case Mexican flu seems the appropriate choice. The added hilarity due to religious whackjobs nerdraging over the name is just a bonus. This time their logic is right, though.

-There was a Hamina'n (a town in south Finland) school teacher (who a friend of mine knows) returning from holidays in Mexico City just a few days ago. I think her classes have been cancelled until her health status is updated. The labwork is basically a blood test and few seconds of work by detectors, so it should already be known if there was contamination or not. I haven't heard anything about it, so apparently no disease.

-Why whine about overreacting. I haven't heard of anything else than WHO being on their toes as of now. I'd call something that wastes public resources as an overreaction. The flu's spreading rate is now pretty well known, so there is some reason for worry (not panic yet). This is an easily spreading fatal disease, so of course any private person has the right to take whatever personal precautions they want. Generally the "reception" has been pretty calm, even at ground zero.

TOO LATE. PACO HAS ALREADY POSTED.

I call it the PIG HIV.

I think it's a joke really. at least the massive media coverage.

Well it came out today that there's a confirmed case of the swine flu in my county. This had everyone at my job talking. A lot of people felt that they didn't care what management said about public appearances, they'll wear a mask if things get bad. I tend to agree. I'd think customers would be relieved to see foodworkers restricting the flow of germs. We already go through rubber gloves like their use is a religious ritual.

I wonder if we'll be closing schools now. We're already out of snow days.

I'm much more concerned about the people reporting on the flu more than the disease itself. I can take antibiotics and rid myself of the cold. Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade are much, much harder to get rid of.

At work, if you call in sick, you can't come back until you have a doctor's note saying you don't have Swine Flu.

I see a mini vacation.

NO.



NO YOU CAN'T.



IT'S A FUCKING VIRUS, NOT A BACTERIA.


Dammit, antibiotics are only useful for killing bacteria, and then only if it's not a resistant strain.

Paco's cure is tequila, either way. He just forgot which word to call it today.

I wonder if catching the Swine Flu would help Paco's shitty L4D performance any.

I've found the Swine Flu horribly disappointing. After getting 3-4 emergency alerts and CDC instruction emails from my school I expected some terrible, devastating virus. Then it turned out to just be the regular flu with diarrhea and more highly contagious. Lame.

Only if he's playing on the Infected side. Otherwise he'll just swipe all the pills before anyone else can use them.

At least he'd actually be picking up health for once. Sounds like an improvement to me.

My PIG HIV was cured by green tea. And The Macallan.

Yes. I know that FOX News is "A FUCKING VIRUS, NOT A BACTERIA."

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO ADD, CAPTAIN HYPERBOLE?

A bacterium.

But yeah, the antiviral medicines seem to work fine against the disease, so there should be no worry in countries with at least some developed medicine or healthcare (=America's screwed).

Hey, some of us are preferred patients.

Paco, I don't know if I misread, but it pisses me off whenever anyone talks about using antibiotics to cure something viral.


It's a touchy subject for me because the idea of super-staph scares the shit out of me.

Couple of confirmed cases in my area. A pair of kids from the same class in (I think) elementary school got it, and two others are being tested. Quarantined them all. They're trying to figure out what the vector was right now, and have closed all the schools. My job is also offering liberal leave for those who don't want to take the risk. Unfortunately, I'm triple booked for meetings next week and can't do any such thing, otherwise I'd be going for an unexpected vacation.

I dunno what fucking homo deleted my post, but I still think that people blow this one out of all possible proportions.
So the WHO (the institution, not the band) just decided to make people around the world insecure by jumping to level five. Fuck the WHO, they have no fucking idea what they are talking about.
So there are a couple of swine flu victims in Mexico. Fuck Mexico, their health care system is barely better than the democratic system in North Korea.

Now everyone is jumping around, TV stations drawing worst case scenarios (seriously, fuck those idiots). Geez, you guys all need a large cup of chillax. You CAN shake other peoples' hands. You CAN eat pork. You will NOT die. Okay?

Swine flu. Hai hai, next hype, please.

Yeah, I too don't understand why someone would want to raise awareness of a possible pandemic to allow local authorities to prepare for handling the situation.

Do you also oppose volcano monitoring?

I do. I like the element of surprise in my eruptions.

Well the confirmed cases have jumped up to 85 at this current moment, Its kind of alarming to see how many new cases are popping up since only a couple of days ago there were only 19. Thankfully, there have been no cases of swine flue in my home province of Newfoundland. Alberta on the other hand, which is where I'm to right now have 15 cases of the swine flu at this moment.

Who knows, I could have it, I've been fighting a horrible cough over the last couple of days. I'm not going to get paranoid about like every body else has. The camp I'm staying at is being really strict about it, because since this camp holds about 2700 people, we have a lot of guys coming back on their holidays down south especially Mexico. So we were provided a notice by our employer is that anytime we fly home if we come down with any kind of sickness while we're home, they encourage us to stay home for another week till you feel better in fear of the swine flu. I'll just take a wait and see approach. That's all I can do.

In terms of other swine flu related news, this little tidbit happened in canada today.

Alberta Pigs likely infected with swine flu

A friend of mine who refs soccer recently got an email from the USSF telling him to red card any children that shook hands. In an attempt to stop the spread of swine flu. This really... saddens me, actually.

There's been a case of it confirmed one town over from me. I'm still not terribly worried. Angel, you mentioned that it seems to be spreading quickly... I'm not so sure I see it that way. I think 'pandemic' and I think of countless infected, full hospitals, etc. Granted, its probably not the easiest or quickest thing to diagnose, but I feel like the common flu had more confirmed cases on my college's campus than this one does through the world.

Maybe I'm just being too lax and not considering all the unconfirmed cases, but 85 just isnt a spectacular or threatening number on the WORLD level.

No, I don't oppose volcano monitoring (good comparison by the way, got you some props!) but just in case you haven't noticed yet, there is a pretty huge hysteria about a flu that is probably not any more dangerous than a common cold. It's been the same with BSE, it's been the same with SARS and it's been the same with the bird flu. Why should it be any different this time?

The SARS fatality rate is around 15% to 20%. Bird flu goes as high as 60%. If you think they're "not any more dangerous than a common cold" you are severely uninformed.

I guess you got my point.

When the bird flu hit the planet in 2006, scientists went as far as predicting a pandemic that could kill a large fraction of the human population. There was a huge panic, Germany even thought about cancelling the Soccer World Cup. In the end, there have been 421 cases, of which 257 resulted in death. Not exactly a serious pandemic if you ask me. Same with SARS ("we're all going to die"). And what the heck, dude, you know about the health care situation in some Asian countries just as well as I do.

WELL GUESS WHY IT DIDN'T END UP BEING A SERIOUS PANDEMIC

Because they spent billions of bucks for research and killed hundreds of millions of birds to try to contain H5N1. What exactly is your point?

You're on the right track here. Now tell me, why would they bother spending "billions of bucks for research" and kill "hundreds of millions of birds"? Isn't that the "huge hysteria" you just credited for preventing a pandemic?

Are you interested in a serious debate?

All I am saying is that it has yet to be proven that the swine flu is as dangerous as many people say it is. When I speak of "mass hysteria", why would I mean spending money for research? Of course - and I guess you know that - I was talking about some people around this planet drawing worst-case-scenarios, which I think isn't really helpful at all. I am very well aware of the fact that spending a lot of money for research can help to contain a flu, and why exactly would I oppose a move like that?

I predict that in a few weeks, nobody speaks about this anymore anyway. Sure, I might be wrong, but then again, that's just my prediction which of course I know not everyone agrees with.

So what if it's yet to be proven? You've had 19 deaths in Mexico so far. That's one flag. Most of the victims were young adults. That's another flag. And most importantly, unlike avian flu, H1N1 spreads relatively easily from human to human. Adopting a "let's wait and see" attitude would simply be retarded.

The true danger of swine flu has not yet been proven, as there is still a lot of debate going on as to how strong the virus is after it moved from pigs to people. Yes, people have died in Mexico, but you do have to take into account that a lot of the victims waited to see a doctor or couldn't afford medication. The only thing that is really worrying at the moment is the incredibly fast rate at which it spreads, not on how lethal it is. Even so, the chances of another Spanish flu, were death rates of 1000 people a day were not uncommon, are pretty slim.

I do agree that measures need to be taken, but panic needs to be avoided. Closing down entire school districts (Texas), killing every pig in the country (Egypt) come of as too drastic. I even saw a woman walking around with a fucking mouthmask yesterday, something I never expected to see outside of hospitals and Japan (and gave me quite a startle actually).

Haha, our University just required us to post our temperatures to a special website every freaking day...

I wonder what happens if I self-report 39 degrees

Yeah, standard procedure from the SARS days.

I need to find my digital thermometer. I don't know if it still even works.

I wholeheartly agree, but in my opinion there is a difference between taking the necessary measures and creating a mass panic.

What happens if you report an above-average temperature? Do they just say "Don't come to school today" or do men in hazmat suits show up at your door?

They probably drive up with a van and execute you inside.

nuttyturnip, I think there are mandatory quarantine procedures plus a hospital stay :p

Some nosepicker from Germany thinks a bunch of doctors and medical researchers from around the world are wrong?

Yeah, that sounds legitimate, I'm gonna go with this guy.

Mush is right in that, for most people, the effects of the swine flu will be no greater or worse than any other common flu. But this isn't what concerns doctors foremost; it's the potential rate of infection possessed by the virus that is of greater concern. It's a new mutation, nobody has antibodies. The vaccine will take time to develop and there are legitimate worries that the virus may mutate further, complicating treatment. While places with established healthcare systems like America, Canada, Europe and Japan may not suffer as badly, the possibility of a global pandemic means that the swine flu poses a threat to underdeveloped nations. That's where it will wreak the most damage.

The primary issue is the rate at which the disease will spread, not the severity of it. Even if the virus simply caused you to have a blue spot on your forehead for a week - pretty harmless - if it infects a high percentage at a fast pace, it's still a pandemic.

That said, Mush is rather naive to laugh it off just because it probably won't be any worse than a typical flu. It's still a flu.

Yes. A real problem would be if it could spread around freely, mutating into tens of different branches in different parts of the world. Then treating it, if it suddenly just burst flaming, would be impossible.

It's better to be systematicly cautious now.

That was when Cheney was VP. Now we have Biden, so they arrive by train.

But I'm torn on how much of an overreaction everyone's having. I think Crash got it, in the way that it sounds like it's not any worse than the typical flu but it's new to the scene and spreads rather quickly and that's where the concern is coming from.