Overwritten.net
Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pugnate on Sunday, April 26, 2009, 07:44:20 AM
-
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/26/swine.flu/index.html
-
Jennie just saw this in The Cincinnati Enquirer an hour or so ago, although it said 68 dead. It's like SARS all over again, except this time is much more scary for Americans because the proximity to the source and how much Americans go to Mexico and vice versa.
-
Or the bird flu, except this is actually killing people.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A. The specimens will be sent to WHO to determine whether it is H1N1 swine influenza. H1N1 influenza is a subset of influenza A.
So it is a subset of the bird flu.
edit:
I guess Scott is even less fond of Mexico now.
-
I was actually going to make a post about this. I'm absolutely infuriated at how our worthless fucking government has handled it. In Mexico, they've issues statements telling people not to share food utensils, not to kiss, not to shake hands, to take precautions... here, they've said "Wash your hands". And that's it. There hasn't really even been any substantial public warning that I'm aware of. And, again, Obama is sitting around trying to figure out how to legalize millions of illegals.
I'm not eating out much right now, and I'll only go to a restaurant where I know for a fact immigrants aren't cooking the food. Which around here means almost entirely Asian food, because those are the only places near us that are family run and you can trust who's in the kitchen. Which is cool with me. I'm also avoiding raw foods, as you never know who may have handled them on the way to your plate.
Some people have even suggested that it could have been something started by Al Qaeda. It would be a brilliant plan... infect the US via Mexico, since there's no effective border. There's no proof of that, but it does seem ridiculous that the government isn't looking into it. Those people have been trying to modify the flu for years from what I understand.
-
Don't blame Obama for that. This attitude toward deadly infectious diseases became policy with aids, way before he was anybody. Once it became politically incorrect to quarantine people for an incurable deadly disease because it's concentrated on a downtrodden minority, sane medical practice went out the window. The swine flu comes from Mexico? Perfect. Another minority to protect at the expense of public health.
-
Well, yes, it certainly isn't a precedent set by him, but for a guy who's all about "change", he sure seems to like sticking by shitty policies that have never helped anyone in the past. And I do blame him for continuing to consider the ridiculous immigration issues, while the rest I lay on the head of the CDC. What a joke. Unfortunately, the punchline is the vulnerability of the public.
-
I'm not eating out much right now, and I'll only go to a restaurant where I know for a fact immigrants aren't cooking the food. Which around here means almost entirely Asian food, because those are the only places near us that are family run and you can trust who's in the kitchen. Which is cool with me. I'm also avoiding raw foods, as you never know who may have handled them on the way to your plate.
Most of the Chinese places around here have Mexican cooks.
-
Yay, something new that the masses can be scared about. I was worried that we were starting to get complacent.
So, what sort of absurd, useless measures can I take to protect myself from this new menace?
-
I find that strangely surprising Scott.
And Ghandi, just go outside covered entirely in a giant condom. That should keep you safe.
I can imagine that either GPW or Beo could hook you up with one of those.
-
(http://imgur.com/27K39.jpg)
-
It takes the flu to get you to post? How long has it been?
-
My last post was in January 2008, apparently :-[
Why don't I start a new thread so as not to derail this one.
-
Haha the Dr. is in! Good to have you back Doc!
I think the swine flu scare is just another gov't reinforced terror tactic. Swine flu has been around since the 70's (possibly well before as well).
I don't think it's a coincidence that a low-flying airliner was sighted in NYC for no good reason alongside this pandemic.
-
I was actually going to make a post about this. I'm absolutely infuriated at how our worthless fucking government has handled it. In Mexico, they've issues statements telling people not to share food utensils, not to kiss, not to shake hands, to take precautions... here, they've said "Wash your hands". And that's it. There hasn't really even been any substantial public warning that I'm aware of. And, again, Obama is sitting around trying to figure out how to legalize millions of illegals.
I'm not eating out much right now, and I'll only go to a restaurant where I know for a fact immigrants aren't cooking the food. Which around here means almost entirely Asian food, because those are the only places near us that are family run and you can trust who's in the kitchen. Which is cool with me. I'm also avoiding raw foods, as you never know who may have handled them on the way to your plate.
Some people have even suggested that it could have been something started by Al Qaeda. It would be a brilliant plan... infect the US via Mexico, since there's no effective border. There's no proof of that, but it does seem ridiculous that the government isn't looking into it. Those people have been trying to modify the flu for years from what I understand.
???
-
So is it swine flu because it came from pigs? Did someone fuck a pig?
I remember hearing some shit that AIDS came from people fucking monkeys, but yea... all that did is made me think of beastiality anytime I hear a disease with an animal name in it.
-
*groans* here too???
i'm SO SICK of this swine flu thing.. like the susan boyle thing.. rawr
-
http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=5159.0
Anyway, it is only natural for people to talk about something that has the possibility of becoming a pandemic. :P
-
I gotta say that the idea of "Swine Virus" just makes me think of Zim. Especially the episode when Zim and Dib were both infected with the bologne DNA:
(http://www.quizilla.com/user_images/M/MA/MAR/MaruMaru/1129437712_zim_02_1094064880.jpg)
I'm sorry if it seems insensitive but I have to find the lighter side of things.
-
(http://imgur.com/27K39.jpg)
When you're right, you're right (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/28/swine.flu/index.html).
-
So is it swine flu because it came from pigs? Did someone fuck a pig?
I remember hearing some shit that AIDS came from people fucking monkeys, but yea... all that did is made me think of beastiality anytime I hear a disease with an animal name in it.
It has nothing to do with animals. It's just a name.
-
Haha the Dr. is in! Good to have you back Doc!
I think the swine flu scare is just another gov't reinforced terror tactic. Swine flu has been around since the 70's (possibly well before as well).
I don't think it's a coincidence that a low-flying airliner was sighted in NYC for no good reason alongside this pandemic.
I'm not buying into the panic either, how many people does the common flu every year? Hell, I ate ham last night...in fact...I should check the grocery store to see if any ham is on sale or buy some stock in ham.
-
It has nothing to do with animals. It's just a name.
Well it's been around in pigs for ages, it just doesn't usually spread to humans.
I'm not panicking either. If it gets to the point where a significant percentage of people in my city are dying from it, I'll just lock myself in my apartment and play video games all day. Which is not really all that different from what I usually do. Hmmm.
-
It has nothing to do with animals. It's just a name.
There's still probably someone out there fucking a pig. Maybe not related, but still important to know.
-
Well it's been around in pigs for ages, it just doesn't usually spread to humans.
But it's not spread through consumption of meat. People keep making the illogical connection that eating pork causes swine flu, which is dumb.
-
(http://www.freewebs.com/citadel_of_chaos/farmyard%20fucking.JPG)
-
(http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6241/swineflu.jpg)
-
Hahahaha :P
-
You wouldn't believe the type of stuff you find when you do a google image search on "pick fucking" with filters off.
-
But it's not spread through consumption of meat. People keep making the illogical connection that eating pork causes swine flu, which is dumb.
Why is that dumb? Sure in this circumstance it isn't true, but when it came to this virus's earlier mutation - the H5N1 aka the bird flu -, the infection only occurred when the infected animal was eaten.
And since the 'swineflu' is similarly named as the 'birdflu', it is only natural for people to assume that it spreads in the same manner as well.
-
Oh, I wasn't aware that the bird flu was spread in that manner. I guess it's not so dumb now. :P
-
hehe yea that's why it wasn't as likely to spread.
-
Are we all going to die? Again?
The flu changes on a seasonal basis, it's always a concern. This situation needs to be handled properly without causing panic. The media is creating too many problems. The gov should let the doctors do their job. There was an swine flu outbreak in the 70s and more people died as a result of the rushed vaccine.
-
The vast, vast majority of people recover without any need for treatment/antivirals/antibiotics/etc!
The media just needs a story, and this is the one they've chosen.
This is SARs all over again in ridiculous exaggeration of actual events in favor of selling a story. Be afraid! Tune in at 5!
-
(http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6241/swineflu.jpg)
Two pairs of sunglasses? He's gone mad.
-
OMG this is crazy. Yesterday, Joe Biden said on The Today Show that he is telling his family not to go in confined spaces like subways and planes. Today, the director of the CDC said those places are "perfectly safe, but it might be a good idea to bring a little hand sanitizer" and the press secretary is saying Joe Biden meant to say that if his family members felt sick, then they shouldn't go in confined spaces.
What a joke. Matt Lauer this morning made a comment that sometimes "political gaffes are when a politician accidentally speaks the truth".
I don't know what to think at this point.
-
I say treat it like the average flu outbreak in a neighbourhood:
1. Don't share cutlery and other utensils.
2. Don't get crammed in a crowd i.e. in a bus.
3. Don't make-out with strangers i.e. in a club.
4. Always carry extra sanitary napkins.
-
i say treat it like the average overblown media scare:
1. don't give a fuck.
-
I guess Beo didn't like:
"3. Don't make-out with strangers i.e. in a club."
-
seriously though - it's fucking ridiculous. one of my best friends works for the british press association, and pretty much everybody there thinks it's the most over-hyped story of the last ten years. remember bird flu? anybody you know die of it - anybody you know even catch it? even the vast majority of those who did catch it were fine - and that had far greater potential health risks than this. this is just a big steaming pile of bullshit made to sell papers and get you watching the adverts in-between "news" segments. i thought you were all more intelligent than to buy in to this crap.
here's a quote from the bbc news website:
The swine flu strain is a H1N1 virus, the same type as seasonal flu which circulates throughout the world every year, and kills roughly 0.1% of those infected or higher in an epidemic year.
- oooh, terrifying. i better avoid pigs and mexicans until the man on the news says this is all over. fucks sake...
also, joe biden's either an idiot or a douche - either way, he should obviously be ignored from now on.
-
It's same as SARS. It's only severe for people with low immunities, much like a regular flu would be anyway. During the SARS "epidemic" (as they called it) there were few severe cases with newborns but the only fatal cases were people over 60 yrs of age.
I'd only be concerned if something like Polio made a comeback.
-
You are right that people should treat this as a "regular" flu, but the real issue that SARS highlighted at least here in Toronto is the horrible state of the current Canadian health care. The system was on the brink of collapsing when the epidemic ended. Many hospitals couldn't contain the spread, lacked fast response measures and access to medication required to treat patients. The system was just not prepared for an epidemic, which came as a shock to the public.
The threat of a highly virulent flu epidemic is real and this is why so much money is spend each year trying to predict the next emerging strain and create an effective vaccine each season.
The primary reason this swine flue stood out was because it's from the H1N1 strain, a variant of the strain that caused the "Spanish Flu" in 1918 which killed millions of people and spread globally. The vast majority of those killed were healthy adults because that particular variation of the virus actually benefited from a healthy immune system, through what is known as a "cytokine storm" where the body creates too many white blood cells which kill the person (block the air way passage, etc.). That's why when healthy adults started getting sick from the swine flu, it started raising concerns that another highly virulent strain of the flu has emerged.
-
You are right that people should treat this as a "regular" flu, but the real issue that SARS highlighted at least here in Toronto is the horrible state of the current Canadian health care. The system was on the brink of collapsing when the epidemic ended. Many hospitals couldn't contain the spread, lacked fast response measures and access to medication required to treat patients. The system was just not prepared for an epidemic, which came as a shock to the public.
That's very true. I guess the good that came out of it was the attention it drew to the problem. The Canadian health care system has gone under review and will hopefully receive the amendments it truly needs.
-
here's a quote from the bbc news website:-
The swine flu strain is a H1N1 virus, the same type as seasonal flu which circulates throughout the world every year, and kills roughly 0.1% of those infected or higher in an epidemic year.
oooh, terrifying. i better avoid pigs and mexicans until the man on the news says this is all over. fucks sake...
I get what you're saying and agree with you 100%, but the thing to keep in mind is that a far more virulent version of an existing strain isn't something to scoff at. As it was said before, the Spanish Flu was H1N1 as well and it was also the worst medical disaster known to man (arguably killing more than the Black Death).
Yes people are freaking out a bit too much, and yes the media is being fucking retarded. The thing is that with shit like SARS - it wasn't that the medical system was unable to handle the load - A total of 250 people in Canada had SARS, with about 40 dying...all of which in one city - it's that it gets overblown and there's a lot of hypochondriacs out there. The system gets choked with people thinking they have whatever is on the news, which is exactly why too much media sensationalism is dangerous.
-
Here's the thing. If this comes to nothing, then everyone will scoff at the media, schools and whoever else made a tempest in a teapot. If it spreads geometrically and kills thousands, let alone millions, then there will be much worse recriminations. Why didn't they quarantine! close the border! . . .etc. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. I'm glad I have no say in it.
Just take reasonable precautions. After that, all we can do is wait and see where this goes. So far, no cause for panic.
-
Damned if they do and damned if they don't
Absolutely.
-
What Cobra said is about what I'd say. My previous post on the subject was more due to anger at past problems in the country, not because I really think this particular virus is going to end the world (though I still think people should be safe and not take chances). I do actually know a couple people who have it, and it did a number on them. My realtor and his wife were actually in Mexico and both came down with it. Sucks. There's still a lockbox on my door because of it.
In many cases, though, apparently it isn't even as bad as a regular flu. It's definitely an overdone story. My sister's all panicked about it because her kids are so prone to illness, but we keep trying to tell her it isn't that big of a deal.
-
One question... why are we still alive?
-
One question... why are we still alive?
Sorry my bad. I was supposed to have finished the doomsday device by now but I got distracted. Games and y'know.
-
bird flu's worse than swine flu. but put them together and we have a massive killer. I just wear masks (N95) and keep clean to stay safe. And i avoid going to public places.
i guess it doesn't matter what people say--government or not. Each one will just have to be responsible enough to stay well and if they get a virus (no matter what it is), don't pass it on.
Any of you planning on taking advantage of the awesome travel deals?