This whole "Swine Flu Epidemic" is pure bullshit. Something like 200 people have been confirmed to have caught it and only two deaths were caused by it
2% of 6 billion is 120 million people. Don't take it so lightly just because it's on a small scale.
It's not a epidemic, and people need to shut the fuck up about it.
I think you'll find it is. [http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html]
The state of New York is going bat shit stupid because 17 or so people total have got it here, some of which were in school. So now schools are closing left and right to be scrubbed down because everyone is paranoid that they're going to die from it.
And this is the exact reason it hasn't spread so far. The closing of schools and public centres isn't a fearful reaction to the virus, it's standard protocol set down by the WHO to contain highly contagious, highly deadly viruses.
It ain't gonna happen people. The only people who have died from it were already sick and dying.
This is not true. H1N1
can kill the weak, like every disease can, but it is particularly deadly against strong, healthy immune systems such as your own (I assume.). It has a similar effect to the Spanish Flu of 1918 in that it reproduces rapidly and so causes your own immune system to destroy enough of your body to kill you.
So stop wasting paper and time by saying how to avoid it, what to do if you think you got it and whatever the fuck useless "information" you wish to spew out. I and every single American have much better things to do than to listen to the germ-a-phobic nutter screaching on how the swine flu will kill us all.
Now now, no need to be cross. I don't think that every single American has something better to do, unless you want the sizeable scientific workforce to stop researching the virus?
An effective vaccine the proper word is has already been developed.
No it hasn't. That was one of the issues raised when the hype was still up. We had antiviral drugs, but no vaccine. It was cited to be completed in about 6 months. That was 6 months
after the epidemic was declared. We really weren't as prepared as we could've been.
To others: the H1N1 subtype already accounts for about half of seasonal flu deaths. I can't understand why you count this as some kind of good thing. We can clearly see that we can't deal with regular seasonal flu as so many people die from it every year. Current seasonal flu targets and is effective against the weak-immuned, whereas the new H1N1 strain targets the strong.
Combine the two in one season and you have one huge problem.
The Reason for the hype surrounding it is this:
Influenza A virus strains are assigned an H number and an N number based on which forms of these two proteins the strain contains. There are 16 H and 9 N subtypes known in birds, but only H 1, 2 and 3, and N 1 and 2 are commonly found in humans.
It's a similar case for pigs.
See, us humans only have to deal with 3 Different H's and 2 Different N's normally, in various combinations. The problem comes when (In this, quoted, example) an avian strain of flu becomes contagious and effective to humans. This then, in effect, moves all of the other 16H's and 9N's that we haven't experienced yet into our list of possible combinations. This makes it much bigger, and there are many more which our immune systems, as a species, havn't been exposed to yet.
You may dismiss the media hype, but don't dismiss the danger.
It's not gone yet.
