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Swine Flu is here

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Robert

Robert

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clements.
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Camrose, Alberta, Canada - used to be Umea Sweden.
Swine flu is now in Canada, with a half-dozen mild cases reported in Nova Scotia and British Columbia. But officials warn that more cases will likely be found and to expect a more widespread outbreak.

All the Canadian illnesses are linked to Mexican travel, including four patients in Nova Scotia who are students at King's-Edgehill private school.

In the media, it sounds like a cheap crappy Hollywood horror movie taking place in real life.
 
Anybody remember the Swine Flu epidemic in the 70s that affected an estimated 7 people?
 
The Swine Flu also reached Mallorca/Spain. Due to the fact that Germans travel a lot to Mallorca this Flu will reach us here pretty soon, too. Let us hope that this will be stopped soon.
 
IF you do a little research you'll find out that many of the so called outbreaks amounted to much of nothing. Flu regularly kills many people every year. Mostly it is pneumonia that does the killing in those with weakened immune systems. The problem lies that the deaths from pneumonia are often linked to the flu and never tested for correlation. Many of those pneumonia deaths are attributable to things other than the flu.

http://www.flufacts.com/impact/statistics.aspx

INFLUENZA STATISTICS
The flu isn’t always thought of as a serious or life-threatening illness. Because of the dangers and complications it can have in older people, children, and people with health problems, the perception of flu severity is changing.

In the U.S., an estimated 25–50 million cases of the flu are currently reported each year — leading to 150,000 hospitalizations and 30,000–40,000 deaths yearly. If these figures were to be estimated incorporating the rest of the world, there would be an average of approximately 1 billion cases of flu, around 3–5 million cases of severe illness, and 300,000–500,000 deaths annually.


Flu-related deaths can result from pneumonia and from exacerbations of cardiopulmonary conditions and other chronic diseases. Deaths of older adults account for more than 90% of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza.I wouldn't get too worried.

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/flu/stats.htm

Edit:
Added another link
http://www.intuitiveparenting.org/flu_statistics_overstated.html
 
I agree with Spud. It's nothing I'm all that concerned about. I find it's just another sensationalized story for the media to fill up their time with so they don't have to spend their resources covering..., hmm, how should I say this? How about "they don't have to spend their resources covering things we are not allowed to talk about here." There. That pretty much covers it.
 
R_of_G said:
I agree with Spud. It's nothing I'm all that concerned about. I find it's just another sensationalized story for the media to fill up their time with so they don't have to spend their resources covering..., hmm, how should I say this? How about "they don't have to spend their resources covering things we are not allowed to talk about here." There. That pretty much covers it.
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Ha ha.:rotflmao: Well said.
 
Remember the bird flu "pandemic" situation that caused such panic?

It was pushed onto the media hot and heavy by the people who wanted the vaccine purchased. IMO this is the same scenario. If you want to sell a product, you have to have a market. Should people get flu shots? Of course, if they need them.
To put it another way............. I live high on a hill and I don't have flood insurance.
 
Ars Technica has a nice article on the situation. Basically the media's running a bit amok with it. The CDC is just gearing up to track things and to make sure that if things do get severe, that they could get a vaccine out. Seems like good, common-sense precautions. Here's a snip from the article on the disease's effects in the U.S. thus far:

The CDC's monitoring has allowed a number of cases to be identified that might not have otherwise come to light, as very few of the US cases have wound up putting people in the hospital; so far, all have recovered. As the CDC's Acting Director Dr. Richard Besser put it, "In terms of detection, what we're seeing in this country is mild disease—things that would never have been detected if we weren't ramping up our surveillance." It's not clear whether this represents the typical course of the infection or whether some environmental or genetic factor enhanced the severity of some of the cases in Mexico.
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This little dude isn't afraid of no stinking swine flu.

untitled.jpg
 
Ohhhh nooooo! I have the swine fluuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

I only have a 98.7465328765721098% chance of survival.:messedup:
 
The problem with influenza viruses is that what they appear as when first detected is not a reliable predictor of what they may become as the virus proliferates.

The 2009 influenza (Type A H1N1) at this stage shares similar properties with the 1976 influenza and the 1918 influenza which became the deadly pandemic. At this point there is no way of knowing what it's going to do. It could through mutation, become a less virile strain and just peter out, or it could mutate into a more virulent strain and cause severe illness and a percentage of deaths. It's just too early to know right now, but in about two weeks it should show signs of which path it will take.

The really deadly danger though is not from mutation of the virus on it's own (although that route could still produce a nasty strain), but from reassortment. The virus is now in Asia when there have been many cases of H5N1 bird flu virus reported. As of today there have been no cases of human to human transmission of H5N1. However, in 2004 researchers in China found H5N1 in pigs. Pigs can carry human influenza virus strains. If an individual was infected with H5N1 and was then infected by this current strain (H1N1), the two viruses could begin swapping genes through the reassortment process and a novel and very deadly pandemic strain could emerge for which humans would have no immunity. This has been the concern with H5N1 all along - that it would combine with an H1N1 type virus and become a deadly pandemic.

When the 1918 influenza first appeared at Ft. Riley Kansas, it was a mild strain of H1N1 similar to the current virus. There was no pandemic at that time. What happened next was where the virus became the killer.

Troops from Ft. Riley were shipped to the east coast of the US and put on troop transport ships bound for the trenches of France. As carriers, the troops began spreading the virus to other previously unaffected troops on the ships, then to American, French, and British troops - and even enemy troops on the German side - when they arrived in Europe. It was in Europe that the virus either mutated into the killer pandemic or combined with another strain of influenza through reassortment. So little was known about viruses at the time that reaserchers aren't sure exactly how it happened. Viruses were too small to be viewed through the microscopes of the day. That capability wouldn't come until much later.

The 1976 influenza at Ft. Dix NJ was similar to what we're seeing currently, but with a major difference. The US Government was so fearful of another 1918 pandemic that a massive innoculation program was ordered. Trouble was, the vaccine wasn't ready for distribution. It hadn't been perfected and thoroughly test before release. The vaccine caused 500 cases of Guillain- Barre Syndrome (GBS), a neuromuscular disorder, which resulted in 25 deaths. A major blunder for certain, but the cynicism it spawned towards "government solutions" continues still today.

So, we're still in for an uncertain next few weeks (and maybe months) as this flu runs it's course. I'm hoping and praying that it gets tired and just quits. But even if it does, the fact that it's a novel virus that could resurface in the future still make reaserchers nervous. It could end for this year, but maybe not forever. And then the wait and watch begins again...
 
oldguy said:
Remember the bird flu "pandemic" situation that caused such panic? ...
Click to expand...
I was the Marketing & Public Information Officer for our local Community Hospital at the time of that scare. I attended a number of County and State (CA) planning & strategy sessions over the course of nearly a year. The Federal Gov't (CDC, FHA, etc) was also involved in 'advisory capacity'.

The worst-case scenario prediction was that our 2-county region (Riverside & San Bernardino) would likely face innoculating 250,000 people in 10 days. Do the math on that one...no matter what you read or hear in the media about 'adequate supplies' of the requisite vaccines: it's a lie.

The logistics of the plan were an 'End of Days' strategy. To put it bluntly and truthfully, what the public would NOT and MUST NOT know until that scene were to play out was that 'First Responders' (paramedics, triage personnel, etc) and their families would be first in line. High-ranking gov't mules and would be at the top of the list as well.

After that, like a mythical sinking ship, it would be young women & children first, those who could and should survive, the likeliest to be of some future value (read: taxpayers, high-ranking corporate execs, etc). Those who would NOT be innoculated and left to die would be the the shut-ins, who couldn't make it to the shot clinics that would be set up at schools and other major public venues, the already infected in advanced state of illness, but most of all, the elderly. Since they had the shortest live expectancy anyway, and would be a burden on the survivors, they would be relegated to collateral damage status. Some exceptions might be made when push came to shove (literally), but elderly on Public Assistance were dead meat.

Being advised to 'stay home if you've got it' is a helluva spin our Health Officials put on us. Sure, it minimizes the likelihood of spreading the disease. But it also minimizes the number of innoculations to be administered. Crowd Control.

Having been there, done that, I must tell you that, my friends,that very plan has almost surely been dusted off and updated to deal with this.

Make sure you line up your rides now and keep the car gassed up.
 
Robert said:
In the media, it sounds like a cheap crappy Hollywood horror movie taking place in real life.
Click to expand...

I'm in the media...and it drives ME F'n crazy!!!
We were talking with this local medical supply company about the run on surgical masks. Certainly the medical profession has a need for them, but I don't think individuals need to be running to the store to stock up.

Hey, I think I still have some generators, water and canned goods from Y2K :D
 
Radioboy950 said:
Hey, I think I still have some generators, water and canned goods from Y2K :D
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:rotflmao: Exactly!

This is just the disaster scenario du jour. That people trend towards thinking every new alleged crisis is the end of the world never ceases to amaze me. It all makes for a lovely distraction from the things the news media should be covering.
 
I agree Robert, but it seems to me that it wouldn't be very effective if people didn't actually want to be afraid. Fear sells because people buy into the fear. If people decided to educate themselves and not simply fear everything they were told to fear... well, I can think of a lot of things that would be different.

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

It's more than just a good quote. :D
 
What it comes down to is this: We're all responsible for ourselves. Thinking that "the government" is going to save you (or even tell you the truth) is delusional. Educate yourself about the threat, formulate a personal plan for you and your family, and have the necessary preps in place before the crisis occurs.

I sent my wife off to work yesterday with her emergency supply kit should the worst happen. She'll probably be the only one at her work with N95 respirators, goggles, and nitrile gloves if/when the virus shows up. I know I'm the only one where I work who has them...and our company is supposed to have a "pandemic flu plan".

Better to be prepared and not need it than unprepared and SOL.
 
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
 
One of the local lawyers is very concerned about the epidemic, because he slept with a pig last night.:messedup:

It's actually a step up for him . . . he usually sleeps with one-legged women because they can't run away.:eek:
 
luvmyshiner said:
One of the local lawyers is very concerned about the epidemic, because he slept with a pig last night.:messedup:

It's actually a step up for him . . . he usually sleeps with one-legged women because they can't run away.:eek:
Click to expand...

Shiner this one-legged woman,her name wasn't Lean na was it:rotflmao: Sumi:D
 

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