Swine flu has 'pandemic potential'

[Luke]

well yes i can agree that stuff goes on that we don't know about....but cnot how you do. But meh, for all i know you could be correct. There could be some mexican in a lab right now being forced to eat nochos of biohazzardous materials and then reproduce all while chuck norris is there laughing.

 

[SparkMonkeyHellion]

Yes, and to **** with Occam's Razor

 

[ricanflow]

Ive got quite a bit of info not released to the general public and looks like this thing is getting worse.

 

[Kharn]

Ive got quite a bit of info not released to the general public and looks like this thing is getting worse.

I just heard about the baby, 24 / 25 weeks old perfectly healthy but it had recently returned from mexico city.

What is worrying is the age group this seems to be targeting and thats the group normaly less likely to have life threatening complications from a case of the flue and that the 15 - 50 year old group.

 

[ricanflow]

Our government has released lots of funds for a national emergency response with influenza vaccines, and apparently they work for several strains of swine flu.

Im confident this thing will be beat. i actually got called up today, they need EMT certified personnel at the airport i work at.....looks like they want to have a quick response team to aid the ems teams.

 

[MrCoffee]

It has nothing to do with you or me being "strong" enough to withstand a "pandemic". It has to do with actually thinking instead of needlessly worrying. Be cautious all you want, that's great. It can't hurt. But needlessly worrying and the media blowing it way out of proportion is NOT what is needed.

you're right, scare mongering and panic are not what we need but i think we do need to recognise the potential of this thing to blow up. I don't think you can say that worry is needless, I mean just look at what we have:

1) A new flu virus strain that no one has any prebuilt up immunity to
3) thousands of infected people
3) cases in several countries
4) the virus has killed people in the 20-50 age range... flu doen't normally do that
5) Its contagious - and thats the biggie. Avian Flu was never contagious so you just can't compare the two incidents and say that this is just another overblown scare.

Edit: even as I type the post WHO have raised to alert level 5.

 

[hikaricloud]

There is a difference between worrying and being cautious. Worry is a useless emotion, because worrying accomplishes nothing itself. Being cautious and aware, that's where it's at. Realizing that you aren't invincible, but not needlessly worrying about dying from a random strain of the flu.

That was my point, not that we should completely dismiss this and go on ignorant. Just be smart.

 

[Oreo]

I think raising it to level 5 was dramatic.

Only two people died and the kid in texas was a very young child. Give a healthy 15 to 20 year old the virus and i guarantee they won't even need to go into hospital.

Two people have died, yet they're claiming we're approaching a pandemic Two people probably die from sneezing each day..

Our government has released lots of funds for a national emergency response with influenza vaccines, and apparently they work for several strains of swine flu.

Im confident this thing will be beat. i actually got called up today, they need EMT certified personnel at the airport i work at.....looks like they want to have a quick response team to aid the ems teams.

Same i beleive. I think we have a stockpile of 50Million (UK Population is 60Mill) anti-viral drugs which are effective against Swine flu. Also, every household in the UK will be getting a leaflet about swine flu, and they've doubled the size of the stockpile of mouth mask things, whatever they're called

 

[philbar71]

^ i agree, the people on my local news station are wayyyyy over reacting to this whole thing. that was thier top story for tonight

 

[Oreo]

^ i agree, the people on my local news station are wayyyyy over reacting to this whole thing. that was thier top story for tonight

It's not even that contagous. I mean, i read how "10 people were in contact with somebody that had contract swine flu" but none of them caught it.

It seems rare that even if ur in a room with someone that has swine flu, that you're likely to get it. So the chances of tens of thousands of people catching it and hundreds dieing seems tiny.