Swine Flu

[Jyson]

Just read a couple articles on it, one of them being this one http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/med_swine_flu.

I was just wondering what are your thoughts on this and if anyone has anyone been keeping up with this?

[DutchHerp]

I have, sort of.

A good friend of mine lives in Mexico City. He says all public places are closed down and people are stuck in their homes. I'm not that worried, but I think the gov't is trying to prevent commotion by saying there's no need for panic.

The thing is, people are not equipped to deal with this virus. Just think about what happened to the Native Americans when the Europeans came with all their germs and diseases.

Tomorrow there's a girl in my school coming back from Mexico. I'm hella excited. ... not.

So far it's in Israel, Brazil, Mexico (149 dead), United States (40 so far infected), Canada, Scotland, and I believe a few other places.

Hope that helped.

[rebeccabecca]

I personally think we are all going to die( ok just 1/3 of us). look at animals when populations get to big viruses wipe out a alot of them and they start over. Places where they have a lack of sanitation,large populations living close to each other,malnurished populations and corrupt goverment( they try to hide illnesses that could cost them money) will be the hardest hit. Of course if this is the new flu pandemic it'll be here to stay and will break out in waves like other flu virus.

[JLC]

This article summed up my feelings quite nicely:

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/...7462&gt1=31036

Personally, I think today's media culture has become one in which drama sells...and the more horror and fright they can inject into a story, no matter how ridiculous, they will do it....because it makes big bucks. (Just one of the many reasons why we have to constantly fight for our rights to keep our pets...the media loves to sensationalize every little incident as if it were gonna bring the world down around our ears. )

[ladywhipple02]

I agree with JLC. This portion of the article hits it home. Seriously, there are what? 20 million people living in Mexico City? And 149 have died? The percentage is rediculously small.

"Meanwhile, that year--and in every year this decade—between 30,000 and 50,000 American deaths were recorded from complications related to the seasonal flu. Another 40,000 people died in automobile accidents. And each year, gunshot wounds account for 30,000 deaths, around 4,000 people drown while swimming or boating and 60 people die from lightning strikes."

BTW... I'm going to Ensenada, Mexico On May 16th to help build houses for the homeless. I'll let you know if I make it or not...

[Jyson]

I agree with JLC. This portion of the article hits it home. Seriously, there are what? 20 million people living in Mexico City? And 149 have died? The percentage is rediculously small.

"Meanwhile, that year--and in every year this decade—between 30,000 and 50,000 American deaths were recorded from complications related to the seasonal flu. Another 40,000 people died in automobile accidents. And each year, gunshot wounds account for 30,000 deaths, around 4,000 people drown while swimming or boating and 60 people die from lightning strikes."

BTW... I'm going to Ensenada, Mexico On May 16th to help build houses for the homeless. I'll let you know if I make it or not...

I as well agree with both you and Judy.

Here is another article I found on it as well that answers some simple questions. http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/med_...e_flu_q_a.html

For the most part it sounds like a common flu. And it sounds rather easy to avoid it.(Don't go to Mexico)

[MarkS]

I was 18 when the last swine flu panic went around in the US. This was back in 1976/1977 or somewhere around there I think. I was still in high school but since I was 18 I had the option on whether or not I wanted to get the shot, I opted out and didn't get it but there was a huge push to vaccinate everybody over the age of 18. If I'm not mistaken, some places were even saying it was mandatory. The weird part was that I don't think there was even a confirmed case of swine flu in the US. With the massive vaccination push, of course you had some people who turned out to be allergic to the vaccine and I also remember that to speed things up they had a new tool for giving the injections, instead of a needle it shot the vaccine in with a burst of high pressure air. Since they were in a rush to get this all done quickly they didn't train people very well on how to use these vaccination guns and I remember reading in the paper about some poor guy who got part of his arm blown off because the air pressure was turned up too high. I think after all was said and done, more people were killed or injured during the vaccination process then there were people who came down with the swine flu.

[DutchHerp]

My friend is in Mexico City and (don't quote me on this) he said about 700 people are in the hospital and about 250 have died.

I think they're making it too big a deal to, but I'll keep my eyes out for this.

[Ben Biscy]

if we end up facing a pandemic i believe it'll be a bit more dramatic than a mere flu variant....

however, a future pandemic is certainly possible, especially with climbing population counts.

[Jyson]

My friend is in Mexico City and (don't quote me on this) he said about 700 people are in the hospital and about 250 have died.

I think they're making it too big a deal to, but I'll keep my eyes out for this.

They problably are. Be careful though, last time I checked they still don't have any way of finding out if people are infected before they get on a plane.

Forgot to mention, I saw the funniest thing on the news last night about this, a reporter was talking about how some official (or someone) stated how they shouldn't blow this out of portion and that they shouldn't show too many graphic images that could stir panic "like people wearing masks" (those are the reporter's words not mine. And the whole time he said that they were constantly showing video footage of people wearing masks and showing all the countries it was in and etc. etc. etc.

if we end up facing a pandemic i believe it'll be a bit more dramatic than a mere flu variant....

however, a future pandemic is certainly possible, especially with climbing population counts.

Agreed, although it could be from the flu. The flu is constantly mutating every year and they constantly have to making new strains of a vaccine. Some scientist a few years ago theorized that it might be able to combine itself with another virus creating a completely new virus "that could have a serious impact."