It's important to be prepared for certain events: nuclear holocaust, the rise of the machines, and zombies.

I have no doubt that Crompsin is prepared for any of those possibilities.

snowy..snowy snowy..tsk tsk tsk

crompsin IS a machine from the future.

I'm a little worried, but only because I have kids. Its amazing how much having kids changes your concerns.

not worried, not caring,
denial is a wonderful thing......

I don't know how they do it, but xkcd always gets a laugh out of me:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/swine_flu.png

Quote of the day:

"We will call it Mexico flu. We won't call it swine flu."

-YAKOV LITZMAN, Israel's Deputy Health Minister, on the country's decision to rename the flu outbreak because of kosher dietary laws.

:eek: My tail is curlin'...

One of my coworkers is going to Mexico for vacation tomorrow. Should he come back with the sniffles, I'll be concerned.

The precautions have been enacted in most of the airports in Asia. Just read this morning that Hong Kong and the Philippines have thermal sensors on all arrivals to the country. As I said above, Changi airport has been screening as well.

SARS hit this part of the world quite hard. Their economies were greatly affected. In the current economic situation, that could be disastrous.

I think Mexico, already in a tough spot will crushed. The repercussions will be felt for years to come.

It's the end of the human race.

Now the dolphins take over.

K. My buddy in Mexico City is terrified. Between an earthquake and the outbreak of the swine flu, he is done with that city. He's moving back to the US. Apparently there's quite a hysterical fear there among the residents.

The big question is, are they actually reporting what is really going on there?

http://nbcsportsmedia4.msnbc.com/j/M...7p.hmedium.jpg
http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2009/...ffiliate.4.jpg
Swine flu leaves Mexican soccer stadiums empty | CharlotteObserver.com


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm

Here are some stories from people in Mexico. It would be interesting to see if the US government/military would be able to control the people like this, or if the people are acting in their own self-preservation and choosing not to travel or congregate around others. Maybe we need this to thin out those people here in the US that don't listen to warnings and protests things the government recommends.

Then again, is it a slow news day and they are hyping up this to have something to talk about? Or will the CDC, WHO and other government and public/private companies be able to stop this before it gets really bad?

Is twitter causing people to repeat the same false news or made up events over and over again? How do you know it is real? How do you know it isn't?
Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform - By Evgeny Morozov | Net Effect

Should the people start worrying? Are we 8 months too soon, that is my fear, that this will spread slowing around the globe, until temperatures are below 60 outside and airborne transmission becomes much easier. But, then again, the regular flu was bad this year and it didn't reach really high levels here until last month.

----------------------------------

I'm worried about the Virus X type outbreak as well. A virus you get and can transmit to others through the air for 14 to 28 days before coming down with any symptoms, but then you have a high probability of dying would be really bad.

I should probably watch 'The Stand' again. There are some other good movies, but I'm not sure how realistic some of them are.

--------------------------------------------

I'm not sure the current flu shot will do anything. I'm sure they are working on trying to come up with a vaccine for next winter right now, but the US got rid of a lot of our vaccine labs (due to lawsuits and not as much profit compared to daily drugs)

-----------------------------------

As for me, I am watching it, and I think if there are hundreds or thousands of deaths in the US, I will have to start staying away from people and raise my biohazard level. And if there is a full blown pandemic, I have no problems wearing my bio suit to the grocery store or other places. I do need to stockpile some canned food and drinking water though. And I probably should get some more duct tape, bleach and clear plastic if I need to seal up my windows and make an airlock in the front entryway of my house. Then again, I may be better off moving someplace else, but I'm not sure I have a good 'Into The Wild' type plan anymore to get away from the rioting mobs and violent anarchists.

I wonder if this could be the Captain Trips virus? Captain Trips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Evil people start moving toward Vegas. Good people will be found in Colorado.)

Every time I hear the word "pandemic" I keep thinking about Danny Devito's character in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" when they're running around Chinatown looking for something newsworthy.

"Let's get the scoop about the latest paaaandemikk!"

I got the feeling that the young people bit was just a statistical fluke. ie that it was a bunch of traveling students who got sick first or something (?)

ill be grabbing the popcorn and a copy of Outbreak with dustin hoffman and renee russo and watching it tonight.

i seriously think that this is all overdone. the media is having a field day...or month.

i loved 'the stand', but to be blunt i cant remember where colorado is on the map, guess im going to vegas

You can track it spread here. Interesting to see the updates over the last 48 hours

H1N1 Swine Flu - Google Maps

nine - I posted that link in post #21 on the first page of the thread. :P There are quite a few more pointers on the map now, though.

Sorry. I did a quick scan to see if it had been posted. But obviously missed it.

My life for YOU!
http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/4...9677-large.jpg

Those are kids who go to a private school and went on a trip to Mexicio, so I wouldn't say it has hit 'the shipping' yet. Not that you'll see this or anything, ..........
Swine flu symptoms spreading beyond Windsor, N.S., campus
Health officials confirm 6 cases of swine flu in Canada

I am concerned, saddened, and angry.

People that continue to rely on faux-news, cable programs,
are going to receive a dribble of real news, laced with the usual heavy dose of fear,
hype, and pretty graphics.

There are reliable sources available that hopefully folks will utilize,
to help dispel rumors and general ignorance about how this virus is transmitted.
( some people are truly afraid to eat a pork chop)

There are studies being done regarding the practice of raising animals
for consumption, ( the massive production farms, poultry, swine, etc.)
It is unwise, in my opinion, to have that many 'livestock', in such concentration.
(perhaps another thread for this)


Accidents do happen:
Baxter International, did ship some Avian Flu vaccine, that contained live H5N1.

Fortunately, it was tested before distribution.

my question is, how lethal is it?

if a hundred and something mexicans have died, but only 1 american who has it has died, is there something we're missing here?

are the immune systems different? i'd guess not.

are the health systems different? hell yeah!

i'd say this is a bad case of mexico not being able to manage its health service properly.

many people die from the flue every year, im still not seeing the big hoo-haa yet

Mexico, at least population centers, has a decent healthcare system. The problem is that they were the first hit, and authorities did nothing because it seemed like just another cluster of flu cases. Then young people started dying, likely because they are the age group who congregates most freely in public places with large groups of people, and speculation is flying that cytokine storms may be playing a part and younger people in the US (high school rather than mid-20s) are the first known cases. If it is a cytokine-storm-inducing flu, we have a lot to worry about. If not, we have mass hysteria to worry about and relatively healthy people will clog our ERs and tie up medical resources that should go to people who need antivirals and IV corticosteroids to keep them alive.

Most likely source of the Nova Scotia cases are tourists who returned from Mexico. Same with NZ.

---------- Post added at 12:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 PM ----------

shades of Neville Shute (On The Beach)....

WHO reckon it has about 1 - 4% kill rate.... hardly Captain Trips.

Hey has all the ingredients: inspires irrational fears, has people wanting government to help, is spreading fast and sells newspapers/gets people to watch the news..... It's a money maker.

I rate it a 7 tho Dick.... the beat is very nice but I can't dance to it.

I would just like everyone to know that I'm eating a turkey club sandwich right now.


I figure if Swine Flu has traces of the Avian Flu... I might as well eat pig and bird at the same time.





OMG PANIC!!!

I just sent one of my assistants home. She's married to a cop.






Dammit, it was funny in my head!

I cannot deny following the news with a certain sense of nervousness... but things like this have happened before (flu pandemics) and I think we are better placed than ever to try and deal with it and minimise the damage done. Its important to keep in mind as well no one outside Mexico has been seriously ill yet.

Or it's like 1918 again - where people in the prime of life were the ones who dropped in the largest numbers!

Too soon to say.

It has now officially spread to the middle east and Asia and WHO says there is no way to contain it.

That said, the urgency here seems to be that it is spreading a lot faster than other Type A flus. The good news is that it isn't appearing to be as deadly as first feared (so far it is less fatal than SARS) and the safeguards put in place for early detection appear to be working.

I am convinced there is cause for concern but not for panic.

I've heard that the "experts" will know better by Friday how this might play out.

I'm on the fence on this one. While I certainly understand the media's need to keep us in a state of fear, I can also remember how everyone thought that all the hand-wringing every hurricane season about New Orleans was over-hyped. Then Katrina happened.

Funny how being unemployed has a silver lining - the only time I'm out in public is to go to the grocery store. I carry a small bottle of Purel with me and use it after touching anything.

Oh - more good news - pork is on sale this week!

It could be that there is a co-infection - specific to Mexico - working in conjunction with the influenza to make it more deadly in Mexico itself, and without that co-infection it won't be so deadly in the rest of the world, but only time will tell.

As for the travel restrictions - meh, in 1918, with much more limited travel, 40 million died, including in the world's most remote communities in Alaska, Africa, India, etc. I question how much such travel restrictions will help.

Where's Tully in all of this and when shall we burn Pig at the stake in a fit of hysteria?

maybe its not as bad as first thought..

charlatan, where in the ME has it spread to? im yet to hear any news on it here

In 1918, there was limited travel but it was exacerbated by soldiers returning from WW1. They were travelling from populated areas to just about every corner of the Western world.

---------- Post added at 11:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

dlish... there is a confirmed case in Israel.

That amount of movement is fractional - really fractional - compared with today's day to day movement of people. The only thing the war did was mimic what happens in heavily populated places today like Guandong, Mexico City, etc - bring a lot of people (soldiers in regiments) into a densely packed area making transmission easier within that community, creating a critical mass of infected persons.

U.S. confirms swine flu-related death in Texas
 

CTV.ca | U.S. confirms swine flu-related death in Texas

The kid was Mexican, but he had been receiving treatment in Texas, as he was visiting there with relatives.