Swine Flu

[Captain Zuloo]

I don't think that washing your hands has been proven for killing this virus.

Err...I still wash my hands.

It's not like there is a rabid pig standing in front of every house not allowing us out to go get groceries.

What about the neighbours?

I still think that the effect this has had on the pork industry is insane. Are people really so stupid that they won't eat pig because it's 'swine' flu? Come on, the two barely have any connection!

[brickzone]

I still think that the effect this has had on the pork industry is insane. Are people really so stupid that they won't eat pig because it's 'swine' flu? Come on, the two barely have any connection!

I don't think it has affected consumption of pork here in Ireland much. Most people here were loathe to throw out pork products even when we had the national recall due to dioxins (affecting pigs from just a couple of farms for a month or two - one would have had to eat *affected* pork at a rate of kilos a week to suffer any effects). In fact I know many people who just ate any remaining "possibly contaminated" stuff they had!

I'm not of course suggesting this is an entirely sensible attitude to authority!

[simonjedi]

I think I have that swine flu...

..I'm coming out in rashers.

BA DUM TISH.

but I agree it has been really overblown by the media

[JCC1004]

The only one in Ohio is in Clevand. I'm safe, for now. I hope my realitives up there are fine.

Avoid the swine! :skull:

[jifel]

I think it is seriuosly overblown. No one out of Mexico has died from it, except for a baby who lived in Mexico and just happened to be on vacation in the U.S. There are confirmed cases in my state, but I don't honesly care. It breaks in avout a week and can be stopped with medical attention. Only 155 cases in the U.S. isn't that many, tons more (100,000?) Die from flu related cases, but they piss in their pants when this hasn't killed nearly as much? This will just blow over soon.

jifel

[ProducePrincess]

A bunch of kid's from my school are worried about the swine flu so when ever they talk to me about it looking for imformation i just tell them not to worry or go live up in the arctic with the polar bears

one student at my school wore a fae mask as a joke , so i don't think very many people are taking it seriously in my area.

I really do think the media are making the swine flu seem worse than it really is. you also have the meat product companies panicking and going on tv saying that eating pork will not give you swine flu ( not that i buy their products anyways.)

[Tinn-man]

About 2-3 people in my school got it, and now we're closed for a week, maybe even two, but the teacher's are still e-mailing us our homework. I'm starting to get kind of scared.

[frogstudio]

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.

Dear Talin,

Global warming isn't a mania... it's simply A FACT, and we all should be worried about it. I visited the glaciars in Argentina in 2004 and this year. I was overwhelmed at how fast they are disapearing. I'd recommend you watch "An Inconvinient Truth" and inform yourself a little bit more before taking it so lightly. (http://www.climatecrisis.net/)

That said, and after reading the whole post, I'm really worried that most people aren't taking this too seriously. It's true that far many more people die from common flue every year, but swine flu shouldn't be taken as a joke. The fact that the World Health Organization has raised it's alert level to 5 (out of 6) and that it's planning to take it to 6 should be enough sign that it is serious (http://www.who.int/en/). It's true that so far, things have been handled extremely well in the developed countries, minimizing the death toll. But simply imagine what would happen if it hits the underdeveloped countries, which will not have the ability to control it and provide proper medical assistance. The death toll would simply be ENORMOUS. Besides that, at least to me, this is a huge warning concerning the dangers of living in such a globalized world. Simply try to imagine what would happen if it was a desease without a cure. We should also take it seriously, since it also shows that nowadays, viruses are mutating much faster than in the past. During the last decades, we had at least 3 mutations of the flu virus, while, during the whole last century we only had 2. This should also be a warning, since mutating viruses, always tend to mutate into stronger viruses. Fortunatelly in this case, it didn't mutate into one similar to the Spanish Flu, which literally killed you in a day (you woke up fine, by mid day you were feeling with a flu and by the afternoon you were watching flowers grow from the underside!!!!).

Well, I think this is pretty much I've got to say. If someone felt hurt, please forgive me... but there are certain issues in which I strongly feel we should all be more concious. Cheers!!!

Edited May 3, 2009 by frogstudio

[DoctorDude234]

Thank goodness we are not going the way of Joe Biden, whos message to the people can be summed up like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Stay out of confined spaces! Don't go anywhere!

Actually, his message was this, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

"I would tell members of my family - and I have - I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," he said, going beyond the precautions that President Obama's health officials are advising.

"It's not just going to Mexico, if you're in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft," Biden said. "That's me. I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway."

"If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft or a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, it's a different thing," he added.

However, I live in Vermont and I have a classmate who, because of 2 cases in Mass., thinks our school will close.

I personally think that the media just needs to tone it down a little.

[Skipper 24]

About 2-3 people in my school got it, and now we're closed for a week, maybe even two, but the teacher's are still e-mailing us our homework. I'm starting to get kind of scared.

How are you getting the lessons? Or is just the vital information emailed too?

[Tinn-man]

How are you getting the lessons? Or is just the vital information emailed too?

They send us main points of the lecture in an email and tell us to look in specific areas of the text book for further explanation or examples. All of the teachers also sent out their phone numbers so you can call them if you have a question. It's a pretty neat system, actually .

[Talin Agasan]

Dear Talin,

Global warming isn't a mania... it's simply A FACT, and we all should be worried about it. I visited the glaciars in Argentina in 2004 and this year. I was overwhelmed at how fast they are disapearing. I'd recommend you watch "An Inconvinient Truth" and inform yourself a little bit more before taking it so lightly. (http://www.climatecrisis.net/)

Gotcha' there, frogs. I'm just finishing a four-year higher-level degree course in Environmental Science, and spent the last four years studying global-warming in detail, consummating in a final year project on the subject which I completed recently. Glacier growth and retreat is largely related to the relationship between ocean and land temperatures and precipitation patterns. I recommend reading the courtcase that Al Gore was brought to because of the inaccuracies and misrepresentations in "An Inconvenient Truth" (at the very least, you would then realise that recommended that film is not a good way to win skeptical people over to radical political/economic action), and seriously start informing yourself about the issue instead of just reading "climatecrisis.net". Calling it "FACT" is the antithesis of responsible investigative science.

Futhermore, I didn't define what I meant by global-warming, and neither did you - which makes it all the more ambiguous. I was referring to the mania about the issue in the media which has ubiquitously resulted in mass-hysteria and misrepresentation of the actual science (some of which is mere dogmatic speculation rather than science). What were you referring to? I was not denying the globe is warmer than, say, the 1700s. But in climatology, such FACTS on their own are meaningless when it comes to prediction of the future, and simulation of the past. ~But that's all a topic for a different thread/forum.

So then, the misrepresentation is very similar to the misrepresentation of swine flu, and its popularity among semi-political institutions. And we ought to question things that people get hysterical about so quickly without having examined the FACTS in much detail.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Talin Agasan

[DoctorDude234]

I would like to point out, Talin, that even if you do or don't believe in global warming, cars and coal plants do not emit environment enriching gases. Rather, they spew out unhealthy chemicals. Standing at the top of a coal plant at full blast could be compared to licking an ashtray, I suppose.

Edited May 9, 2009 by DoctorDude234

[pesgores]

I'm sick as of now. I think it's just a cold. It can't be the Swine. I haven't came in contact with infected nor visited Mexico nor even travelled out of my country since last Summer.

[user]

Check out these funny SF songs

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[DB24]

I had swine flu the other week, got quarantined for a week. I live in Melbourne, Australia and everyone here is getting it..

I was pretty sick for 3-4 days, didn't move from bed ('cept toilet runs!) and didn't eat anything. It was a very intense flu, but over very quickly. I was told that i got it fairly badly.

All good now though!

[Peppermint_M]

Someone in an area near us has Swine Flu, if it does come around I don't think it's a worry, rather get some immunity now rather than later. Plus the days off for quarantine would be awesome for Lego.

Glad you got over it ok DB, sorry to hear it was a bad 'flu because most over here are having a mild one.

[AwesomeStar]

I read in the paper this morning (yes, I AM sophisticated! ) that people are actually wanting to get SF in the hope of a faster immunity rather than wait for scientists to make a vaccine.

I, myself, am not at all immune to most flus, and often have week-longs bouts of it in the winter.

Luckily, here in the UK, its very well handled, though 3 people have died of it here. What is reassuring however, is that these people did have underlying health problems, so they were succeptible to it anyway.

~A.S.

[HumanPackMule]

I find all the hype to be very funny. This and this show why I find it so funny(seeing people everywhere wearing surgeon's masks while in Japan also helped).

Edited July 11, 2009 by Arthas

[Darth_Legois]

Normal flu has killed far more people then swine flu ever has.

So I dont understand why people are so worried. I blame the media.

[Roderick]

What eludes me about this is that the 'bird flu' crisis has entirely disappeared as well.

I thought we were going to be massacred by our 'feathered friends'! Er, according to the state-run media, anyway.

Turns out we weren't, because bird flu spreads from bird to bird, not from bird to human(except in rare cases, or in extremely close proximity to the bird and its emissions).

The same thing goes for swine flu it seems: it spreads from pig to pig, again, except in rare cases or in extremely close proximity to the animal and its emissions.

Regarding global warming, all I'll say is that if we have a winter longer than four weeks this year I'm going to be laughing long and hard at mistah Gore...

[Millacol88]

I find all the hype to be very funny. This and this show why I find it so funny(seeing people everywhere wearing surgeon's masks while in Japan also helped).

Some people in Japan did that before the swine flu, to stop the spreading of the common cold and other things. Also, because the smog is so bad in some of the larger cities.

[Legoman]

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.

Yeah, Down here in CHCH there's been a bit of an untold outbreack. I can honestly tell you it's all a bunch of media hype. It's not actully that bad - same as normal flu, as long as your not normally vaunrable to disease, you'll be fine. I had Swine flu, beleive it or not. Just last week. We has to go to the CHCH flu centre and all these scary people with masks were checking me out (that sounds funny... you know what i ment though). It turns out that currently about 75% of poeople in NZ that have the flu have swine flu. So it's pritty contagious. It really wasn't that bad though... I mean the whole quarrintiene thing sucked, but the flu itself was not nearly as bad as the buildup suggested.

So yes that's right EB,

I HAVE HAD SWINE FLU. AND I'M FINE

My opinion - Media hype.