Thread: Swine flu.

The regular flu kills millions each year? Did you make this up?

I agree with you though... It's just a flu, and you have to be pretty weak to die from it.

Originally Posted by Michael

The regular flu kills millions each year? Did you make this up?

I agree with you though... It's just a flu, and you have to be pretty weak to die from it.

Didn't "make it up" just over exaggerated it. I found something that says 36000 people died from it in US. When you add those to other countries it gets up there. I changed it, everything is giving me different answers

It's pure luck we've gotten this far without a serious pandemic which wipes out millions - as most people are aware now, this happened in 1918 and killed 50,000,000, and the human population's about 5 times higher now. Epidemiologists know this, so they're always very catious when a new virus emerges and starts spreading quickly. Fortunately swine flu seems pretty inert, touchwood. There's no knowing if that'll stay true though.

You right Xei.

The Swine flu virus has also been able to infect and kill healty young adults, around the ~ 18 age.

Yes, its just a flu, but a flu is very deadly when you take the whole population into account. It think the fatality rate of the spanish pandemic was average 2.5-5 %, and still ~ 50 million died.

It seems that this swine flu is much less infectious that the spanish flu, the fatality rate is uncertain though, the mystery about the deaths and Mexico while other countries have no deaths from swine flu.

WHO raised the threat to a 4 today, where 6 is pandemic.

I guess we will know in the following days, it will either die out or grow rapidly.

I wondered when someone would create this thread lol
I follow this closely. There have been huge pandemics every century for the last 300 years. We are overdue for a bad one and the officials know it.
Flu pandemics seem to take out 20-40 year olds and skip the elderly and very young for the most part.

Originally Posted by hellohihello

Why are people getting so worked up? Sure it has the potential of a pandemic but what about the regular flu. It kills a a lot of people every year.What about tuberculosis, what about Malaria, what about all the other diseases that kill far more people then this "Swine Influenza". I know it's new, but everyone is focusing on this certain disease instead of the ones that are actually killing millions. To me, it's just another thing to wash my hands for.

People are getting worked up because all of the sudden this new flu comes out and kills/infects people around the world. Not very many, but people need to be wary of new infectious disease. Just think: What if a single person came down with a case of smallpox and survived? The fact that somebody must have stolen one of the two remaining samples aside, that would be a huge flippen deal if you ask me seeing as smallpox is highly contagious, frequently deadly and nobody today is vaccinated for it.

Does anyone else see the possibility of an epidemic as a good thing?

Why - you think you're somehow immune? Or just looking forward to kicking the bucket?

Originally Posted by Elis D.

Does anyone else see the possibility of an epidemic as a good thing?

Yeah. It can get rid of all the weak... Making many following generations strong, healthy people. =O

Instead of all these weak, pale, UGLY people I have to look at everyday.

I'm jking... I dont hate weak people.

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

I wondered when someone would create this thread lol
I follow this closely. There have been huge pandemics every century for the last 300 years. We are overdue for a bad one and the officials know it.
Flu pandemics seem to take out 20-40 year olds and skip the elderly and very young for the most part.

I always thought it was the opposite.... How come most flu shots are for elderly people? AKA- people with weak immune systems.

Yeah why do you say flu pandemics take out 20-40 year olds?

Swine flu is a new flu. That's why we're all panicked and we don't have vaccines for it yet. It's all the Mexicans fault. lol

Originally Posted by DuB

Why - you think you're somehow immune? Or just looking forward to kicking the bucket?

Originally Posted by Michael

Yeah. It can get rid of all the weak... Making many following generations strong, healthy people. =O

Instead of all these weak, pale, UGLY people I have to look at everyday.

I'm jking... I dont hate weak people.

No I mean as a sign that nature is still trying to win the battle against the parasites that destroy the Earth in some feeble attempt to survive.
It makes me happy to know that we as humans haven't completely destroyed the Earth's natural defense systems. She still got some tricks up her sleeve.

This reminds me of the Bird Flu a few years ago. I did an essay on it. With all the bird flu hype the government went and bought like a million doses of the drug Tamiflu which made by a company that many politicians had stock in including Don Rumsfeld. I think these stories are blown out of proportion for monetary gain.

Originally Posted by DreamCloud

This reminds me of the Bird Flu a few years ago. I did an essay on it. With all the bird flu hype the government went and bought like a million doses of the drug Tamiflu which made by a company that many politicians had stock in including Don Rumsfeld. I think these stories are blown out of proportion for monetary gain.

They just spent like 1.5b on tamiflu and junk for this scare....

History repeats.

Originally Posted by DreamCloud

This reminds me of the Bird Flu a few years ago. I did an essay on it. With all the bird flu hype the government went and bought like a million doses of the drug Tamiflu which made by a company that many politicians had stock in including Don Rumsfeld. I think these stories are blown out of proportion for monetary gain.

I was about to bring that up. I had the bird flu, and so did my brother. It was a minor flu that lasted about two weeks. It wasn't that big of a deal. It killed a few birds in my mosquito infested back yard, but it didn't do much to me or my brother. The regular flus that go around are a lot worse.

I think the news media has a lot to do with the scares that happen over these things. It gets EVERYBODY watching the news. It must be a secret sweeps season or something.

In 1995, the big horror was Ebola. It was supposed to kill us all over a few day period. What happened with that? Not too much. Now it's barely even a memory. The repeated wolf crying has made me not scared of this stuff.

"The Spanish flu pandemic was truly global, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. The unusually severe disease killed between 2 and 20% of those infected, as opposed to the more usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%.[30][27] Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old.[33] This is unusual since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70). The total mortality of the 1918–1919 pandemic is not known, but it is estimated that 2.5% to 5% of the world's population was killed. As many as 25 million may have been killed in the first 25 weeks; in contrast, HIV/AIDS has killed 25 million in its first 25 years."
[Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_pandemic ]

I can't find the link, but I read somewhere that a lot of pandemics work similarly.

My hubby thinks the government is trying to release another pandemic because it will eliminate a good portion of the population and jump start the economy. I think his views are a little extreme at times, lol, but it would "make sense" for it to be perceived as "a good thing" by some people.

I just saw something on the news earlier today. President Ford spent countless dollars to get everyone vaccinated, but the vaccines did more bad then good. Killing and paralyzing quite a bit of people.

This will truly be a test on Obama's part.

yet another SARS?

We're All Gonna Die! You're Not Safe!!! Your Kids Aren't Safe!!! Your Pig Isn't Safe!!! God Help Us!! Things Haven't Been This Bad Since The Last Time Winona Ryder Made A Movie!!!

Actually, pigs are pretty safe. None are infected.

Originally Posted by Man of Shred

yet another SARS?

Can't forget Bird Flu and west nile.

If Pandemic 2 is to be believed, I am moving to Madagascar as soon as possible.

Cunsumation of pork has increased since the popularization of the flu in the media. Interviewed people said they need to stay strong and healthy by eating swines to combat swine flu.