Derek Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 With it all over the news, it is pretty hard to ignore the Swine Flu outbreak. I just thought it would be interesting to see everyone's opinions on weather it should be taken seriously, or is being blown all out of proportion by the media? I think that it is a disease that should be monitored, but I don't think its necessary to alarm the public, which is too late. The condition is treatable, and is just like the normal flu, which hundreds, if not, thousands of people die from every day. The first death of the swine flu in the US occurred today, my prayers are with the family of the 23 month old that died. If this is too heavy of material, it can be deleted, its just I feel that this is a mature forum, and it would be nice to have a mature conversation about a problem in our world. Stay healthy, -darthperson Quote
Erdbeereis Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Agreed. I think it can be a problem and thus should be watched carefully, but I absolutely hate how much most people (especially the media, which in turn causes people to freak out) blow it way out of proportion. Where I live, even though there are NO cases reported here, people aren't shaking hands, blah blah blah. If you wash your hands there is nothing wrong with shaking them. Quote
General Armendariz Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Well, I live right by the border of Mexico. I live at the bottom of New Mexico. And they say its coming up here so I better watch out. Quote
mania3 Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 I live in San Diego where there are a few confirmed cases. Also, we're 20 miles from the Mexican border and I work in a place where I'm in contact with a lot of tourists from Mexico. So, I'm not really nervous about it, but I'm certainly being cautious in terms of washing my hands and what not. I do think the media likes to exaggerate things, but at the same time I think it is wise to be cautious. Quote
furious Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 people die all the time from different viruses. Quote
WhiteFang Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 people die all the time from different viruses. Shall we keep this discussion at a healthy level instead of giving very general comments. Thanks. Quote
Darth Yoda Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Well, I have to say I wasn't very interested until I heard the words "School" and "Close" In the same sentence! But really, it seems serious but portrayed as a little too serious.... It's something to look out for but not to panic about or everything... It does get annoying being in the paper for what has it been? A week? my mom came home today all freaked out and told me to wash my hands Etc... Which kind of freaked me out because I really never notice her like that. But still, I don't think it's that serious... Quote
furious Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 (edited) Shall we keep this discussion at a healthy level instead of giving very general comments. Thanks. dually noted Edited April 30, 2009 by furious Quote
Brickthing Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 I was wondering when this topic might come up. I happen to be personally affected by it. As you might know, I live in New Zealand, and in the North Shore region quite near to Rangitoto College, the school in New Zealand that sent our media into a craze after a group students returned from a school trip to Mexico with possible swine flu. I'm quite close friends with a family of some of the students, and the entire family had to be quarantined to their homes from last Sunday until yesterday. However, the situation for New Zealand was largely exaggerated by our media, and the few students who were confirmed to have it have now recovered without any spread of the disease, because of the quarantine. As far as I know, swine flu isn't in New Zealand any more, which is a relief. As for the rest of the world, especially Mexico and the United States, I hope that the situation will be controllable. I'm confident that the United States will be able to prevent the spread of disease in the States, and I hope Mexico will be able to suppress and control the disease as well. The main thing that bamboozles me with the outbreak is that apparently the Philippines have halted the import of pork from New Zealand. The specific influenza that has affected people is likely to have come from pigs, but it's just a slightly-more-than-potent virus that became transmittable to humans, and certainly not running rampant among pigs. More so, I can't understand how at the most, 11 students from a residential area in the middle of a city who caught the flu and are home-quarantined could possibly travel or spread the disease to the rural countryside and put the NZ pigs at danger. Quote
Brickmaster Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 We already have effective treatment against it. It is just the fear mongering media in action. Quote
Sandy Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Suspicions of infection have already spread to my little town of 100.000 via tourists returning from Mexico. I'm not concerned, but the local pharmacies have run out of those white mouth cover thingies (whatever they're called). I'm annoyed that they call this influenza "swine flu", because apparently it has nothing to do with pigs of any kind. It should rather be called "mankiller flu" or "doomsday flu" or something more appropriate to the hubbub that it has raised. But my thoughts go to all those people who have died from it, and their families. Quote
Peppermint_M Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 It's called Swine Flu because as far as anyone knows (knew?) it was a sort of influenza common in pigs that mutated after being caught by a person. The media are wipping up a frenzy, my friend is in panic attack mode (he lives in the town where one of the 5 UK cases is) and everone is "worried". I don't see all the fuss because the 'flu can't kill you if you are young and healthy (not being xenephobic but in Mexico the general level of health is far from perfect) it is the secondary infections that do it. So if you do get swine 'flu (or any other true 'flu, not just an exaggerated cold) then its the pnumonia that can kill you if you don't get on top of it. 'Flu opens the metaphorical door to other viral infections that are worse, like pnumonia or bronchitus, and they are the ones that are really bad, pnumonia can kill 'flu or not. If you get any sort of 'flu you should stay in bed/inside to avoid infecting others or exposing yourself to the cold and any nasty viral bugs that will take advantage of your condition, then if things take a drastic turn for the worse let a Doctor know just incase you do have some form of secondary infection, and do it quick because pnumonia can sit with you for weeks or simply cause you to drop dead (not to make you a panic or anything). On that note I must also mention that face masks (funny white things) are not that useful as Doctors have said, it probably has more of a placebo effect to stop people panicing and staying indoors all the time during such health scares. Dr Peppermint knows things about wildly random subjects (For legal purposes I am not a Doctor, just someone who learns lots of useless things, information sticks to me, even if it is far from useful ) Quote
brickzone Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 It's a matter for a bit of concern, but so far it is not too extraordinary. E.g. there are deaths expected in Europe, but an ordinary flu would have quite a number of those. It isn't really known yet if this will be worse than an ordinary flu (which isn't that great a thing and does result in thousands around the world dying each year). People should be practising good hygiene all the time, there have been various studies showing that a significant proportion of people don't wash hands after using the loo, and spread all kinds of disease all over the place. You can't stop such things entirely (and people need some exposure to disease to build up resistance) but such reasonable precautions would make things a lot better, even just with normal winter illnesses. As for the media, well, there's no guarantee that it won't come to the worst and be a very bad pandemic, in which case it would probably make the media coverage at the moment look restrained. But certainly for now it looks over the top and scaremongering. The authorities are mostly proceeding rationally and with the required caution (even if it turns out to be a bit of a false alarm) but ordinary people don't need to worry at all at the moment, just follow how things develop. Admittedly I would not plan a vacation to Mexico right now! Quote
Admiral Blockbeard Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 The economic crisis news has died down/old news, this swine flu has simply taken the new media mantle what needs to be said to sell news papers. People are more effected by drink drivers than the swine flu! Should we not be calling them a threat to all humanity, shouldn't the governing bodies of the world take a stronger effort in stopping the spread of these deaths? I question the media on almost everything I hear from it. I am disgraced at the fact they consider them selves "objective"... The media has become materialized, and it follows the money not the truth. All said and done only time will show what is to be from the swine flu. I feel for those who are effected, as I would feel for anybody sickened by any illness. Thats my two cents, Cpt. PB. Quote
General Armendariz Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Admittedly I would not plan a vacation to Mexico right now! Yeah, in the summer my family, me, and my friend are going to Mexico we might cancel, but i've been waiting all year for this trip and the swine flu took it all away! Quote
KimT Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Still regular flu kills more people a year than the swine flu has done so far Anyways most pharmacies are already sold out on flu medicine here and we're pretty far from Mexico - Go! Masshysteria Go Go Go! Think back 10 years and we probably wouldn't have heard about this, at least not on the same massive scale as today. This mass media hysteria is the price of modern globalization. Sorry to hear that your future visit to Mexico might get cancelled over this. Hopefully this virus can't live long without a host and it'll die out. Quote
5150 Lego Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Shall we keep this discussion at a healthy level instead of giving very general comments. Thanks. But he's right. And it was not a "general" coment. People die from less harmfull diesess every day. This is justa media hype. Quote
Darth Legolas Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 It only has killed one in America so far, a poor little girl, but I still am not afraid of it. Some crazy nuts call it "the next bubonic plague." I call it, the next vaccination waiting to happen. If sixty people die tomorrow, don't blame me for jinxing it. Quote
Derek Posted April 30, 2009 Author Posted April 30, 2009 Still regular flu kills more people a year than the swine flu has done so far That's what I said. But, there is still the possibility that it will spread rapidly, I heard its very contagious. The economic crisis news has died down/old news, this swine flu has simply taken the new media mantle what needs to be said to sell news papers. Exactly. Now if they could figure out a way to sell papers without sending the world in a frenzy, I'm all for it. We will have to wait and see what comes out of this. It very well may end up as another "Bird Flu" scare... Quote
Scouty Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 Where I live, even though there are NO cases reported here, people aren't shaking hands, blah blah blah. If you wash your hands there is nothing wrong with shaking them. I don't think that washing your hands has been proven for killing this virus. Quote
Talin Agasan Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 (edited) It's a bit like the global warming mania. There are hundreds of examples of the media doing this kind of thing. Scare stories sell for the same reason that lotto tickets sell. Almost nobody ever wins the lotto (and engineers don't pay attention to probabilities so small). Most people don't get affected by these scares either. But "it could be you!" And we knew that good hygiene was important already (or should have known!), and as Christ asked, "Who of you, by worrying can add a single hair to his head?" Admittedly we can make them turn white, but apart from good hygiene, and safe practices that we would have done anyway (certainly people visiting Mexico!), everything else is just vanity and ridiculous fascination. People don't worry about getting into their cars each day, which is statistically even more dangerous than the possibility of getting the 'flu, let alone the swine flu. It takes people's attention away from the everyday things that they ought to be concerned about - like loving our neighbour, etc., whether we're sick with the 'flu or not. But stories that make people feel guilty don't sell so well. And I'm back at that philosophical conclusion that I always end up with when I look at this world. What horrible people we are. Edit: Also, washing your hands is never with the purpose of killing germs. This is why anti-bacterial soaps and sprays are a nonsense. Washing is about washing germs away. It doesn't wash them all away, but enough that it's down to the kind of probabilities that engineers ignore. Trying to kill germs just kills the weak ones, and leaves the resistant ones with a low-competition breeding ground to populate and pass on their resistant genes. They ought to teach that in schools, but they don't even teach logic anymore... Edited April 30, 2009 by Talin Agasan Quote
Erdbeereis Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 I don't think that washing your hands has been proven for killing this virus. Perhaps not, but you get the point. Quote
VBBN Posted April 30, 2009 Posted April 30, 2009 No wonder I hate pork(besides Bacon thou) Ah well, I still have 3 snow days, I think the UCS school district can afford to close down if someone in a diff school got it... Quote
prateek Posted May 1, 2009 Posted May 1, 2009 i think its too big of a deal. waaay more people die from regular flu every year and no one panics. i'll only be worried if it becomes like sars Quote
Izzy Posted May 1, 2009 Posted May 1, 2009 I was just watching the news headlines and they were saying for us to stock up on food incase it hits Queensland! What good will stocking up on food do? It's not like there is a rabid pig standing in front of every house not allowing us out to go get groceries. Quote
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