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

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

This kind of stupidity was inevitable:

"One Islamic militant Web site carried comments Wednesday saying swine flu was God's revenge against 'infidels.'"

I guess Islamic terrorists are immune from swine flu. Everybody sign up.

St Felicitas School in Euclid, Ohio called off classes for Thursday and Friday after a student's mother reported that she has flu-like symptoms. She has not been confirmed to have the swine flu virus, and has not been to the school since developing the symptoms.

Nevertheless, the school says that they are acting out of caution and will sanitize the building. The parochial school's enrollment is just over 400.

So there there has only been one confirmed case of swine flu in Ohio. A 9-year-old Elyria boy is recovering at his Elyria home, and his school also called off classes for the entire week.

ok now that's a little ridiculous

Nah, that's Ohio. We just like to be included in stuff, you know?

lad who was sent home yesterday. turns out he was achey because he'd been playing football the night before.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/30/health/0430-nat-1918pandemic.jpg

people need to to stfu about 1918

and 1966, tbf

"Swine flu's coming home again."

WEST HAM DO YOU SEE

YOU'LL NEVER SNEEZE ALONE

HOGGY MOORE, HOGGY CHARLTON, GORDON SHANKS, HOGGY STILES AND ALL THAT

Jon Carrol's take

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

This is a thing? :O

In the wake of the mixed messages of "OMG Pandemic" and "Don't Panic, Wash Hands", I'm sure some people feel a little weird in Walgreens asking for Kleenex.

WTF with that article. Should people "panic"? No. Should there be serious concern that doesn't trivialize the threat? Yes.

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.

^^ what's weird about this is that there has surely been more of the opposite wacky reaction -- i.e., "see, pigs are filthy, this is why we don't mess with them"

btw I have swine flu and you can totally catch it from posting next to me

*achoo*

Oh, get a grippe!

It's not good for OCD hypochondriacs at all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_he_me/un_who_swine_flu

WHO to stop using term 'swine flu' to protect pigs
-
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 1 min ago
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GENEVA – The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said...

YEah, this'll stick.

guys i heard a joke today.

they said america would elect it's first black president only when pigs fly. obama entered the white house and now we have SWINE FLU/FLEW.

"H1N1 influenza A or HNIA for short."

Then Warren Defever wonders why his band is suddenly so popular on Google...

Aide to White House, family members test probable for swine flu
by Associated Press
Thursday April 30, 2009, 2:40 PM
WASHINGTON — A member of the U.S. delegation that helped prepare Energy Secretary Steven Chu's trip to Mexico City has demonstrated flu-like symptoms and his family members have tested probable for swine flu.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that three members of an aide's family are being tested to see if they have the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. The aide worked in presidential advance, which is responsible for planning and preparing trips.

Gibbs said that Secretary Chu has not experienced any symptoms. The spokesman also said that President Barack Obama also has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health.

Then the entire WH press corps starts coughing...

I'm going out to the countryside until the plague passes.

BUT THAT'S WHERE IT CAME FROM!

"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

The Eazymeron

watched scary RI press conference at lunch

governor smiling way too much, like someone desperate to convince you everything's under control

I could almost smell his sweaty palms

2 more in R.I. being tested for possible swine flu
10:15 AM Thu, Apr 30, 2009
Kate Bramson

The R.I. Health Department has sent two more samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be tested for possible swine flu, department spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth said at 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

That means the Health Department is awaiting test results on three Rhode Islanders.

The Health Department announced Wednesday that a student from North Kingstown High School is being tested. The results in that case are expected Friday or Saturday.

Beardsworth said she does not know where the additional two people who are now being tested are from in Rhode Island, nor does she have any demographic information, including their ages.

Beardsworth said the current time frame for test results to come back from the CDC is 24 to 48 hours. But she said it's important to remember that the CDC is the only place right now that can conduct this final stage of testing and the center is getting an increasing number of requests for such tests. She said she believes the samples are being sent to the CDC on Thursday.

Beardsworth said North Kingstown High School remains the only school in Rhode Island closed because of concerns of swine flu spreading.

Beardsworth said she hopes to have more information about the Rhode Islanders being tested for a news conference this afternoon.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-reality30-2009apr30,0,3606923.story

"scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare."

Oh jeez front page articles like this are NOT HELPFUL:

AUSTRALIANS could soon be asked to stock their pantries with food and water and prepare for an emergency, according to the Federal Government's pandemic flu plan.

A manual outlining Australia's response says that when the World Health Organisation moves to phase five, which it did yesterday, Australia will be in its "delay phase".

This phase recommends that the Government implement border surveillance. It also recommends people develop plans to stay at home. This includes a direction to stock pantries with supplies for 14 days.

Not failing to mention that this is what they would say IF A PANDEMIC HAPPENED. The Age are wording it in such a way as to suggest "yo, go out and stock up now oh but dont panic or anything".

This'll cause bloody panic. No cases have happened here!

i look forward to the supermarket shelves being half empty yet again

Someone just drove into a building in downtown San Francisco about half an hour ago ... probably swine flu.

I have a sore throat. Swine flu, obv.

ILX hit by swine flu