Swine Flu- Are you afraid?

The media hype kills me and hopefully the swine flu won't.  I do the best I can to "be safe."  I always try and be conscientious about touching my mouth, eyes and nose just not to get your "regular" germs.  I won't live in a bubble, nor will I go around licking all the armrests on a Greyhound bus.  I must say that I am unafraid!

What about all of you?  Are you really concerned?  Do you think it's a conspiracy of some sort?  A biological weapons attack?  What are your thoughts?

I'm not afraid, I'm annoyed. I had the bad luck to be sick with a cold just as this was hitting the media. Ugh.

People like the opportunity to panic and worry, it's nothing new. Nevermind that people die from flu every year.

I will wait, I will watch, and if things get bad, then I'll be concerned. Right now? Things aren't bad anywhere but Mexico, and whether they're statistically bad in Mexico is up for debate.

I think they just havnt got anything better to put on the news now the US has a new president,wars have settled down and the reccession is old news.

I'm in the UK so i guess its not as bad but i bet more people died triping over a rock last week than from a virus that has killed one person outside of mexico(and even he was a child visiting from mexico). SO i think ill look where im going instead of thinking about swine flu.

Bird Flu is actually far more dangerous than swine flu and they didnt get that excited over it.

The flu kills tens of thounsands of people every year, swine flu has killed 8 people so far.  I think we'll be fine...

I work with the public (taking MONEY from them which is far worse). I work out at a public gym. Someone that I share breathing room (and probably germs) with every day teaches at a school. So I guess that makes me a "high swine flu risk" person. But I think people are freaking too much over it. My work has said that if you feel sick, to call off. They've sent people home who were allergic to the blooming hyacinths the produce dept sells, for "sneezing too much". Really, if you're taking care of your body and you've kept the stress off of your immune system, you should survive even if you get it.

Of course, this will bring out the hypochondiacs in droves - "My finger itches. OH NO I HAVE THE SWINE FLU!!"

not worried at all our annual flu outbreak kills people every year, don't see that all over the news.....it's the flu.

What I'm really worried about right now is that i'll get sick and it will take significant productivity away from my studying. As long as I can hold out until after June 9th before getting sick, I'm fine.

I am not panicking although my state is. Schools are closing even ones without a confirmed case, Cinco De Mayo celebrations have been cancelled, and the Governor has issued a state of medical emergency and put the National Guard on alert.

The regular yearly strain of flu kills so many folk from this article

"Death rate extrapolations for USA for Flu: 63,729 per year, 5,310 per month, 1,225 per week, 174 per day, 7 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 63,730 annual deaths for influenza and pneumonia (NVSR Sep 2001); estimated 20,000 deaths from flu (NIAID)"

Now this said, where is the panic for what happens on an annual basis?

I think right now...its not really so bad (but, the governments could be hiding a LOT of whats going on). Things could get bad though....as in millions and millions dieing. No one is saying its there yet, they are just saying its too soon to tell....so it could be anywhere between minor annoyance to bodies in the streets end of the world.....who knows?

I feel the same way you do.  Taking precautions but not giving into the media's fear frenzy.

Cases found here in Providence and North Kingston (Johnson and Wales)...in RI.

*panic*

=/

^ Not uh! I heard about the North Kingstown case, but I thought it wasn't confirmed?

I'm such a hypochondriac....haha.

Original Post by jblarghp:

^ Not uh! I heard about the North Kingstown case, but I thought it wasn't confirmed?

I'm such a hypochondriac....haha.

I don't know, I was just told... I don't watch the news. :P

I'm not concerned any more than I am about dodging other diseases that go flying around normally.  OK so it's something of an unknown quantity at the moment but short of retiring to a sealed room there's no way to avoid a virus.  So we can either waste a lot of perfectly good time fretting about it or we can get on with life as normal and take reasonably precautions like washing hands.  I go for the latter. 

I don't think it's a biological weapon or a conspiracy...  new influenzas evolve on a fairly regular basis (there's one in the eye for the Creationists).   What may be different at the moment is that many peaceful Western societies live under the impression that life is relatively risk-free.  And this is just a gentle reminder that it's not.

The only thing I am concerned about is my school freaking out, shutting down, and graduation being postponed. We have already moved back graduation due to a teacher strike and snow days, and I can't take any more delays!

As for the "swine flu" it is no worse than the "normal flu". As my biology teacher explained it, H1-N1 is just a mutated form of the flu that produces different proteins than the regular flu. It is no worse and no better than the nomal flu. If you live somewhere with adequate health care, and you treat the fever (which is the most dangerous part of the flu since it can cause brain damage), you will be fine. Like everyone else was mentioning, over 30,000 people die from the flu annually - and a different strain hits every year. The virus that causes the flu is notorius for its high rate of mutation, since the way it produces DNA/RNA isn't "proofread" for the right sequence by the virus.

Of course, getting the flu sucks and we should all follow safe defence practices - don't share drinks, wash your hands, etc. But don't freak out. Chances are that you will be fine. And for all of you who live in the Northern Hemisphere - count your blessings that we are ending flu season now, unlike our friends in Australia.

My parents a worried sick really.....they are asian and living in thailand, but now i am studying in the UK. There has been about 11 cases reported in the UK while there is none in Thailand yet. Nonetheless, because of thailand has experienced something like this before, about 3-4 years ago then there were Bird flu and asian flu before and they know the real potential of the disease so they has already started stocking the TAMIFLU pills....but they just cant get hold of it. The medicine is sold out in thailand since everyone there are just soooo panic and have already bought them all out from the market already!

No fear here.  I think it is a bunch of hype.

It's a conspiracy!!!!!    

That being said, no, I'm not overly worried about it at the moment. (goes to wash hands....)

Thanks for your replies everyone.  Glad to hear that none of you are building your bomb shelters.  It's all good.  IMO, all we can do is go about our daily business taking common sense precautions to ward off any illnesses.  Getting worked up into frezy accomplishes nothing.

The hypochondriatic comment was funny though!  I work with one of those types so this ought to get interesting...

Have a good Tuesday folks!

Original Post by oddfunk:

Thanks for your replies everyone.  Glad to hear that none of you are building your bomb shelters.  It's all good.  IMO, all we can do is go about our daily business taking common sense precautions to ward off any illnesses.  Getting worked up into frezy accomplishes nothing.

The hypochondriatic comment was funny though!  I work with one of those types so this ought to get interesting...

Have a good Tuesday folks!

Bomb shelters?  Has the swine flu, er, sorry the H1N1 virus been weaponized?  Jeez.  Where's my shovel?