Swine Flu Outbreak

Too early to rate accurately. Early buzz is that Americans are getting 'sick' whereas there have been deaths in Mexico. . .will have to talk to my little elves in the medical industry here in the metro DC area to get the facts instead of the story. . . Fund science, kids. It pays more dividends than prayer. . . Mathematically, the virus will have one more mutation and that's the 'story'- does it make it more, less, or the same threat. Safe money (and science) tells you to actually get the virus now so your body has a blueprint for fighting a potential future threat of greater severity. . . People pooh-poohing this have that luxury- but with this bug, it's one or two nasty mutations away of seriously exposing their ignorance of the subject. We don't have domain over the beasts. . .the micro organisms tend to have dominion over us.

What a crock. What are we up to now in the US, 48 "mild" cases? The media and the Obama Admin. are having a field day with this nonsense. Socialized medicine anyone? Update: How many deaths now in the US? Still zero? How many worldwide? 100? 150? Gee...let's all run out, like good slaves to the WHO and big pharma and get our shots, take our pills, etc. Knock yourselves out...

Update: OK, I'm bumping this story to four stars based on this: "The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the H1N1 flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case." If this thing mutates into something a bit nastier come flu season, we're looking at 28 Days Later (the horror movie, not the Sandra Bullock movie). Update: I'm starting to get a little spooked. The WHO is using words like "unstoppable" and "pandemic" and there are signs that this Swine Flu is a cousin of the one in 1919 that killed 20-50M, as people born before 1920 seem have a curious immunity to this one. This thing seems to be gathering strength as we head towards flu season. Original Comment: Still too early to tell if this will be a big story. Why the hype? Because a flu outbreak in 1919 killed between 20-50M people.

Detecting and warning about pandemics like a brand-new strain of virus that is potentially lethal to otherwise healthy people is precisely what the WHO is supposed to be doing.

It's looking like it was a lot of hype over nothing. It's just another strain of flu. Yes, people have died from swine flue, but the media forgets to remind you that deaths from more typical strains of flu aren't necessarily that unusual.

It was significant, but I was never really that worried about getting it.

Significant in that the over-use of antibiotics has produced one, maybe two new strains of bugs that the proposed release of a vaccination in the Fall of '09 won't be able to recognize. Compared to the world-wide surge in diabetes, this was no "outbreak". The real outbreak is the tsunami of lunacy that been gushing out of Washington this year. Let the "Disagrees' fly...

May keep up on the news and be a bit cautious. but not going to panic. seems like some areas are freaking out too much.in our area they closed down a school for day because one student came back from a vacation in Mexico. she had not signs of being sick but a whole school was closed. I will try and be aware but i am not locking myself and family in the house.

Meh, take more vitamin C, don't take stupid risks. this too shall pass. I don't think that the annual deaths from this would be significantly higher than at any other year. Having said that, Iam not trying to minimalize the deaths of those that have died from this or any other flu. I am sorry for those families.

Now that the Obama administration has elevated "science" to its proper place in America, they find a crisis that they cannot fail to promote. Certainly we should close the border with Mexico but Obama's teleprompter helped him explain that closing the border would be like closing the barn door after all the animals are out. The unspoken but obvious truth is that there are millions of animals still in the barn and they are still in danger of contracting this, if, in fact, it is a serious problem. I'm a bit skeptical when the administration operates by the motto, "never let a crisis go to waste. " But with geniuses like Malaprop Biden and Janet Napolitano advising us of the right things to do, why would anyone be cynical? I take precautions every day to prevent flu contagion, and so should you. Are you certain you need a president to tell you how to accomplish this? And, please don't call it swine flu anymore, like anti-terror activities there's a less offensive way to characte... Read more

With any luck, it's just that kid cryin', "WOLF!" again. UPDATE: It's Obama's fault?

When news of this broke, I was immediately reminded of SARS, Bird Flu and Spanish Flu. The media enjoys making a mountain out of a mole hill and they are yet again creating a panic where one need not exist. The annual deaths from the flu flux anywhere from 36,000 to a few hundred, depending on what CDC report you are quoting. Their official records seem to keep it rather low. National Vital Statistics Reports And Even those deaths seem to be made worse by pre-existing conditions. So, drink your orange juice, wash your hands,blame your local congress if you have to. Don't lick somebody who is contagious. You'll be all right. Condolences to those families who have suffered from it. And hey, at least we no longer have to hear about octo-mom, peanut butter or GM.

It has the potential to become a 5 star event but the situation could go either way. What is currently happening is that healtcare and emergency preparedness officials are taking appropriately pre-planned measures to attempt to mitigate the impacts of a wide spread outbreak and assess whether those measures are having the anticipated impact. In two or three weeks from now we may decide that a combination of such measures and a large dose of good luck resulted in this being a non-story and a big waste of everyones time and energy. That would be a good thing. There is potential that either the virus mutates and becomes more severe or takes hold in a pivitol location that is ill-prepared for it. In that case we could be looking at major global health/social/economic impacts. The media is doing what the media does, trying to turn documentary facts into a narrative story to make for interesting viewing/reading. The public needs to sift through that and find the important informat... Read more

I hear medical professionals are just saying that it's basically on par w/regular flu strains. I don't get it. It just seems like people get so paranoid so easily these days. What's next? an oatmeal emergency? I can see it now, Wilfred Brimley and the Quaker Oats guy w/a mask on.

I'm old enough to remember the last outbreak in the mid 70. We all learned to wash our hand, and cover our mouths when coughing then too.

UPDATED 4/30/09: This just in! President teleprompter, Barack Hussein, tells us to wash our hands, and cover our mouths when we cough. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Oh, yeah. VP Blabbermouth tells us to stay off airplanes and subways. How is that gonna work?ORIGINAL COMMENT--4/28/09: Just when I thought that the great peanut butter plague was gonna get us all, along comes Swine Flu 2009.Some of you might remember Swine Flu, 1976. A young soldier died of the flu in New Jersey, and the resulting media frenzy caused the fit to hit the shan. Fear stalked the land.President Ford called for action. Congress responded by passing a swine flu bill doing this and that. Since the President couldn't veto it, the Democrats loaded it up with a whole bunch of ear-marks, 1970's style.The drums started to beat for a massive vaccination of the entire country. Congress dragged its feet. The drug companies stated that if they were going to mass produce vaccine for a government program, they want... Read more

This strain of flu has caused a decent amount of deaths, which is significant in my mind. I can understand the need for the media to broadcast this story and remind people to take proper precautions in regard to their health. However, there was doom and gloom forecast for SARS, the bird flu, and mad-cow disease, and I have yet to encounter anybody who was infected or affected by them. Personally I've been wearing a mask at times in public because of my medical condition. I get looks at times and I bet people are wondering whats going on that I have to wear a mask. Today I felt like I got more stares than usual, and I'm sure many of them were thinking, "That dude must be scared about that swine flu!"

I do think that people should be a little concerned on this subject. It seems like you turn on the news and there are a few more that have contracted this sickness. But then on the other hand, people have to realize the media can hype things way out of control. Sometimes I wonder if things like this are being used as scare tactics, kind of like Y2K. Although it had nothing to do with a sickness, it was a similar situation.

At this point hard to say. Nothing to take lightly though. Influenza is remarkably adaptable and mutates quickly. Those of us who know a little history are aware that this disease tore the world a new asshole in 1919-20. That being said, the hype about this is getting a little hysterical. The revelation that the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level from three to four (on a scale of six) had some media outlets hyperventilating that it was the "highest alert level ever issued." True enough, but it declines to observe that WHO only initated the system of alert levels in 2005. To put some things in perspective. The Spanish Influenza pandemic mentioned above accounted for somewhere between 20 and 50 million deaths world wide. Horrifying figures, undoubtedly, but here are some others. It is estimated that about 28 per cent of North Americans contracted the disease, and the 2.5 percent of those who contracted it died. This makes it the most lethal flu outbr... Read more

Scary thing is, they say mostly totally healthy people are being affected. Even people that have been no where near pigs. One doctor on the news recommended just to be safe, to start washing your hands more often then usual.