Swine flu

[Frolic_Fun]

BAW WHINE FLU WE'RE GOING TO DIE!

Eejits. Normal flu kills more people a week then the total dead from swine flu. And that's WITH drugs/vaccines to prevent it.

Sure there may be a risk of a pandemic, but I doubt it will get to the levels of ordinary influenza. At the moment it's mostly media hype to scare the bored population and to divert their attention from the recession.

[DirtDawg]

BAW WHINE FLU WE'RE GOING TO DIE!

Eejits. Normal flu kills more people a week then the total dead from swine flu. And that's WITH drugs/vaccines to prevent it.

Sure there may be a risk of a pandemic, but I doubt it will get to the levels of ordinary influenza. At the moment it's mostly media hype to scare the bored population and to divert their attention from the recession.

The potential pandemic, threatened in essence by the CDC has been averted, according to their own latest reports, although NOT by their hands!!

This flu is a punk compared to bird flu, asian flu, etc.

It has evolved, quite rapidly, even my microbial standards, into a semi-harmless viral infection, not atypical of most other influenza related infections.

A few died, but no one would have known, except that this one had been isolated in a lab somewhere as unique and "identifiable."

The reality is as you have already stated. Flu kills. This is not a bad flu, compared to other pandemics. It is the ones that have not been isolated as unique that we have more to worry about. The regular, whatever, un-named, highly contagious, every-day flu is much worse.

Thank you!!

[TheoK]

Flo kills more than the flu. 

[renaeden]

I hope that it does not become a lot worse, especially in the next flu season.

We are at the start of flu season now.

[Callaway]

I hope that it does not become a lot worse, especially in the next flu season.

We are at the start of flu season now.

I forgot that your flu season has already started.

Hopefully, it won't be too bad since there are only 2000 cases of swine flu in Australia so far.

Do you get a flu shot?

[Phlexor]

I hope that it does not become a lot worse, especially in the next flu season.

We are at the start of flu season now.

I forgot that your flu season has already started.

Hopefully, it won't be too bad since there are only 2000 cases of swine flu in Australia so far.

Do you get a flu shot?

Yes, and most of them are in my state.

[Frolic_Fun]

It's been ages since I had my flu shot. I rarely get sick, but when I do the worst is usually a mild flu/stomach upset, nothing really too bad for me to be in bed for more than a few days. The only serious illness I had was when I got a really bad dose of food poisoning that nearly killed me (doctors were convinced that I'd die too), 2 weeks of constant vomiting isn't pretty.

If I get this "swine flu", I'll more likely to be fine. My body's extremely resilient.

[Phlexor]

Those day and night cold and flu capsules work pretty good anyway.

[Christopher McCandless]

Those day and night cold and flu capsules work pretty good anyway.

Though the amount of Codeine I have been taking recently, I doubt they will have the effect on me that they used to.

[renaeden]

I don't get a flu shot. One year I did and I was constantly sick, catching colds all winter. That is probably just coincidence, though. I have only had the flu twice in my life.

I think one Australian has died from H1N1.

Hadron, stop taking codeine! It is not good for your poor stomach.

[TheoK]

Just elder and weak people get flu shots in Sweden, not because of pennywiseness, but because flu shots aren't good for young and healthy people. This is one of the cases where I think Sweden does absolutely right. Your immune system simply doesn't need flu shots, if you're young and healthy.

[Peter]

It's the same in the UK.  The NHS only provides flu vaccination to people who satisfy one or more of the following conditions:

# 65 years or over
# Older than 6 months with an existing condition that increases your risk
# Living in a long term care home
# A health or social care worker
# A poultry worker
# The main carer for an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if you become ill

I've never had a flu jab, and never been offered one.  I've had flu maybe 5 times or thereabouts, usually lasting about 3 days, and in each case, it's put me into a delirious state with accompanying hallucinations for 12-24 hours, which was fairly interesting at times.

I don't know how much the NHS criteria are to do with a safety/benefit analysis, and how much they're to do with a cost/benefit analysis and supply limitations.  Vaccines can cause problems, but so can flu, and even colds can seriously fuck you up if you catch too many of them in a short period of time.  I don't subscribe to the 'colds and flu make you stronger' school of thought; high population densities and global travel mean that we're exposed to a larger variety of pathogenic viruses at a vastly higher frequency than our immune systems had to cope with during most of our evolutionary history, and viruses do nasty things inside our bodies, like messing with our DNA, triggering cancer and causing long-term damage to homeostatic mechanisms. 

Maybe the benefits of an expanded vaccination program would outweigh the harm caused by the vaccines themselves.  Besides the individual benefits of vaccination, it would produce a herd immunity to the targeted viruses and would reduce the viral load that we constantly have to fend off.

Data from the years when Japan required annual flu vaccinations for school-aged children indicate that vaccinating children—the group most likely to catch and spread the disease—has a strikingly positive effect on reducing mortality among older people: one life saved for every 420 children who received the flu vaccine.[51] This may be due to herd immunity or to direct causes, such as individual older people not being exposed to influenza. For example, retired grandparents often risk infection by caring for their sick grandchildren in households where the parents can't take time off work or are sick themselves.

[Christopher McCandless]

I don't get a flu shot. One year I did and I was constantly sick, catching colds all winter. That is probably just coincidence, though. I have only had the flu twice in my life.

I think one Australian has died from H1N1.

Hadron, stop taking codeine! It is not good for your poor stomach.

Pain isnt good for my sanity either - I would rather not be taking the stuff. Which reminds me, seeing the doctor about this tomorrow.

[Callaway]

I don't get a flu shot. One year I did and I was constantly sick, catching colds all winter. That is probably just coincidence, though. I have only had the flu twice in my life.

I think one Australian has died from H1N1.

Hadron, stop taking codeine! It is not good for your poor stomach.

Pain isnt good for my sanity either - I would rather not be taking the stuff. Which reminds me, seeing the doctor about this tomorrow.

What did the doctor say?  Will you have to take medicine for pain forever?

[Christopher McCandless]

I don't get a flu shot. One year I did and I was constantly sick, catching colds all winter. That is probably just coincidence, though. I have only had the flu twice in my life.

I think one Australian has died from H1N1.

Hadron, stop taking codeine! It is not good for your poor stomach.

Pain isnt good for my sanity either - I would rather not be taking the stuff. Which reminds me, seeing the doctor about this tomorrow.

What did the doctor say?  Will you have to take medicine for pain forever?

Doubt it - taking it for a temporary problem.