don't panic, but "SWINE FLU COULD SPREAD GLOBALLY"

Think that was a screenshot from the DS version, but yeah, Amiga forever.

this just in: Mubarak regime uses OMG SWINE FLU as flimsy pretext to bully Egypt's christian minority

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_swine_flu

I am feeling sick today with a killer sore throat, and while I'm 99% certain that it's not the swine flu the hypochondriac in me is making a major deal out of the 1%.

A Mexican guy just emptied the trash next to my desk, and as soon as he left, I sneezed.

hold the phone, i can get robocod on my DS ?

I am tempted to wear a surgical mask on the tram, so no one will sit anywhere near me and I'll have a seat all to myself in the morning haha =)

I don't know why but wearing a facemask always makes me feel like I am a member of DEADSY:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_npwobj7uOwo/RriRdkuS3EI/AAAAAAAAACU/9nnKbacgau8/cikk11.jpg

i got some hand sanitizer today. i think i'm safe.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.

Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.

So the problem is ...

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:36 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

Can I just point out that this minister is the ONLY Jewish or Muslim person on earth that appears to have this concern?

"Yes, people will die from this. It is not a question of whether people will die, but more a question of how many. Will it be hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands?," Robert Madelin, Director-General for Health and Consumer Policy at the European Commission told Reuters."

"He also said a vaccine could be ready in Europe in 100 days."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53S9E020090429

grotesque idea for an ile poll?!

am significantly more worried about this now than 24 hrs ago

"I am tempted to wear a surgical mask on the tram, so no one will sit anywhere near me and I'll have a seat all to myself in the morning haha =)
"

according to cnn, it's contagious with or without the mask.

my mouth the masks do nothing

Yes, people will die from this. It is not a question of whether people will die, but more a question of how many. Will it be hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands?

250-500,000 people die of the normal flu every year as it is. No one panics about that.

depends how old and healthy they are

i have no mask and i must cough

Normal flu doesn't kill healthy young people, and only has a mortality rate of 0.1%, is why.

This is one of the frustrating things about this: it's lookin ever more likely it's going to become a full-on pandemic (this is only day four and it's leapt up the WHO scale). But because this is so quick we don't really know anything about it, how lethal it really it is, its transmissability, nowt. So is the world just going to get a bad flu, or will it be worse? It's apparently likely that at least someone you know will get it, but will it be this month, or will it take until winter flu season to hit?

I expect instant facts, science, ffs.

"flu is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70)."

with the swine flu, everyone is at risk.

xpost

Certainly I've been a little uneasy these past couple of days -- still, the vast majority of cases have been illnesses rather than fatalities. As stet notes, it's not so much the information we have than the information we *don't* have which is crucial.

I gather too that the initial judgment that this was a combination of three flu strands has been changed to saying it's swine flu straight up. We'll see. We've already received warnings from campus officials just in case -- not unwarrantedly so since we are talking about a *lot* of people congregating each day, and because a couple of recent cases out here are located at campuses. Right now, I'm just making sure to wash my hands more often than not -- I do do public service work, after all, and so must keep that in mind.

I am tempted to wear a surgical mask on the tram, so no one will sit anywhere near me and I'll have a seat all to myself

I'm tempted to adopt this strategy on an evening peak Epping train...

sorry if this has already been said but

JERUSALEM (AP) — The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.

Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.

So the problem is ...
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:36 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

Can I just point out that this minister is the ONLY Jewish or Muslim person on earth that appears to have this concern?

― eggy mule (Hurting 2), Wednesday, April 29, 2009 8:38 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

what about the sensitivities of "Mexicans". they don't rate as high as pork lol?

kewl there is a case on my campus :-/

Even if this turns out to be just a "bad" flu, the loss in work hours and productivity will push an already stressed economy further into the shit can. Just think how our medical services and transportation systems will function with thirty to forty percent of the workforce out sick. It's not a pretty picture.

has anyone considered getting swine flu now so that you wont get the horribly mutated version later?

sounds prudent

i've been making out with every pig i see

Make yr own frat/sorority mixer jokes here

I could almost do my job from home if I was sick, hmm I wonder if they'd let us work from home if there was a severe outbreak.

Combination of swine flu panic + crowded law library final exam panic is just awesome and only going to get awesomer.

dude, try medical school finals and you've got a real zesty recipe

we're getting warnings and shit, but nothing serious as yet. i'm guessing the academic health center will err on the side of caution if and when the time comes, so for the moment i'm not really concerned

has anyone considered getting swine flu now so that you wont get the horribly mutated version later?

― Mulvaney, Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also you realize that the whole reason you can get the flu more than once in your life is because of mutations, right?

gbx I've had the flu like 7 times in my life that means I'm super-immune rite

so apparently this guy gave a talk earlier in the year (which i missed) where he was like 'btw everyone i am virtually 100% certain that there will be an influenza pandemic in my lifetime and that when it happens it will bring this country to its knees'

to wit: we will run out of pretty much everything within days. :o

Article on the talk

http://forum.eastwestcenter.org/mediaconference/2008/01/23/media-asleep-at-the-wheel-on-huge-international-story/#more-36

Under a pandemic, with people sick and not at work around the world, container shipping will shut down, power plants will close for want of fuel, hospitals will run out of medical supplies and even staff, he said. The human cost of all that will be enormous.

“People just don’t understand the implications of a just-in-time economy,” he said.

One example: Japan is the biggest importer of coal and natural gas (for energy) in the world. If a pandemic causes an interruption in shipping, which is likely will, “the lights are going out in Japan within a matter of days of a pandemic, and that will have a ripple effect around the world.”

yeah, that's the stuff. i didn't get a chance to hear him, but there were v v skeptical med students that went in thinking 'oh this will be interesting' and left like making plans to buy canned goods and firearms

They don't have generators and fuel reserves in Japan? Houston shut down for a few weeks last year, and the world kept turning.

This article is acting like the bodies are going to piled so high in mounds that the people that recover won't be able to scale them on their way to work at the shipping yard.

do u know how generators work

just in time logistical planning = no reserves

I've no idea exactly how many days fuel Japan would have in reserve but I'd imagine if shipping was hit any big importer, particularly an energy hungry one, would be worried.

not sure if this is just wishful thinking but some scientists suggesting this is not going to be anything like 1918
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-reality30-2009apr30,0,3606923.story

I pass by this building next to my house every single day - lol

http://www.flupowerflu.com/bigbig-%20Flu_CAGOL.jpg

James Pond will save us all

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G617B0CDL._SS500_.jpg

okay, ace.

remember: Cake, Hammer, Earth, Apple, Tap

Someone explain to me this on the BBC now...

Mexico: 168 suspected deaths - eight confirmed

...when all week they've been talking about 20 confirmed?

In fact in another BBC article it says 7 confirmed.

they could be counting the kid in Texas, because he was mexican?

another beeb article still states that nobody outside of mexico has died, and still says 7 deaths.

oh, and they wanted to perform more tests for confirmation on the dead, that's why it went down from 20 to 7

So they shoudn't have reported it as 'confirmed' then? Maybe?

i guess, but i have no idea why they back tracked on this.

It just adds to the general feeling that nobody really knows anything. Which leads to articles like the Simon Jenkins one (and the Christopher Booker article in the Mail - of all places - to-day) but also leads to "THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING" type stuff elsewhere. It's all pretty depressing.

UK buys 60m face masks as new cases of swine flu emerge

The health secretary said: "To keep the public informed, a mass public health campaign will begin today, with print, TV and radio adverts. The adverts will warn the public about swine flu and remind people to cover their noses and mouths with tissues [when they sneeze or cough] and then throw the tissue away."

The slogan will be "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It", referring to the advice to use throwaway paper tissues when ill, and to wash hands regularly. An information leaflet will be posted through people's doors next Tuesday.

Good update of the old "Pick It, Lick It, Roll It, Flick It" there.

ah, so now i can go into my shop and happily buy kleenex tissues without feeling like i'm a teenager buying a packet of condoms