Still a lot of unknowns out there... plus some interesting speculation about how prevalent it is in Mexico and a neat fact about the 1918 strain...
Every year there is a lot of agonizing over the vaccine for the Fall flu season... this year has an added complexity...
A cousin of mine sent me this... it helps you figure out if you have it whether you're showing symptoms or not: http://doihaveswineflu.org/
Maybe the overblown media coverage and the WHO warning caused such concern that school shutdowns, people washing hands, staying home, etc. stopped it dead in its tracks. Also, its coming to the end of flu season anyways. I'm not really buying too much into the hype, but we'll see if it springs back up again in the fall. The WHO and CDC are watching South America very closely to see if it spreads there during the start of their flu season.
I hate to say I told you so.... but I told you so. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=4457404&postcount=171
how is that an "i told you so?" do you think the rest of us were rooting for death and destruction?? you should call the World Health Organization and tell them you want a job, I guess....and then say, "burrrrrrrnnnnnnn.....ssssssssssssssssssssss."
If 97% of the world's surviving population after 1918 showed antibodies to the Spanish flu (I typed "fly" first -- hee hee), then it's safe to say any pandemic will eventually get to about this percentage of humans on earth. So... Why all the hand washing and surgical masks, etc? Shouldn't we get people exposed straight away, so they can get to developing antibodies, and the resistant people can help others? Or is the CDC & WHO strategy to play defense, and give humanity time to create helpful anti-virals and to spread out the number of really sick people in hospitals at any single time?
I think it worked like it should. if you have a new strain that appears to have a high mortality rate, you can't dink around while you run lab tests and do the hard work of field epidemiology. They got the word out, people knew about it and were able to prepare for it and take appropriate actions. Now, the danger is that possible pandemics become thought of like hurricanes that threaten and then miss. Complacency is the enemy here even though we all still stand a good chance of catching this flu between now and next March. It will kill more people, just, perhaps, not as many as first was feared. That said, this is funny...
i hadn't been reading this thread, but it looks like we've decided to keep our trip planned for mexico next week. we're off to playa del carmen and i think we should be okay. but man, my parents are freaking out. i'm not too surprised but i'm going anyways...
When you return, would you mind creating a thread based on the environment(regarding the swine flu) in Playa? My wife and I are heading there in mid July, and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
While very sad, this lady had a pre-existing health issue, like the infant who died last week. Either one would have probably died with the regular flu. If my stats are right, there are about 306,000,000 people in the US. There are about 600 confirmed cases of swine flu in the US. That means that 1 out of every 600,000 people have contracted it. And of those, only 1 (with a pre-existing health condition) has died. The infant contracted it in Mexico. So basically, if you have a pre-existing health issue, you have about a 1 in 306,000,000 chance of contracting swine flu and dying from it. Anyone know where I can get a mask?
come on....it's really easy to say this with hindsight. but they were cautious because they weren't positive...they saw a high mortality rate in mexico and they knew it was spreading. you hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. and you hope your preparations help stop the spread. i love when people second-guess doctors about world health issues.
