Swine Flu - Possible New Global Pandemic

[Sonicslasher]

I'll sit at my PC with popcorn, waiting for the mass hysteria to kick in

 

[blooddrake]

if reach level 6 them... airports closed

 

[KendoKhan]

You know what I don't get about this swine flu? Why did it originate in Mexico, however none of the pork products there are infected. To me the government done this bullshit to keep us on our toes, straying away from other important matters.

watch this

is swine flu a biological weapon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS4nfubpvn0

or journalist claiming its a bio weapon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morpsu1v31M

 

[Joe88]

I'm still not worried about it, no one in the US has died yet, and that little 22 month old kid in Texas was really from Mexico. So it's not even considered an American death.

I lul'd

 

[Licardo7]

now where did this disease come from, someone having sex with a pig

Opps, I wasn't suppose to do that? Sorry

 

[Defiance]

Kinda funny yet ironic how people are just acting like this is no big deal.

I swear, I mean you can say an asteroid the size of Africa will hit, and people will say 'aw, it'll just pass.'

That said, I personally hope it does pass.

 

[PuyoDead]

EVERYBODY PANIC!

Just another round of the usual fearmongering. Move along.

Oh yea, via Fark, from just today:

WHO: Oops, did we say 152 swine flu deaths so far? Sorry, we meant 7

Swine flu death toll: 150. Regular flu death toll: 13,000. But don't let that stop the fearmongering panic

Two airline passengers with "swine flu" are in fact severely infected with intoxication

What? Bird Flu? What the heck is that?

edit: almost forgot Drew's (Fark guy) take on this:

Posted by Drew at 2009-04-27 02:28:07 PM, edited 2009-04-27 02:41:54 PM

Finally, something of substance has appeared in the news. Swine Flu will kill us all. EVERYBODY PANIC.

First off, I mentioned this in my book in the chapter on Media Fearmongering (which, if you read it, you're already recognizing the signs in MSM today). The problem with being the guy telling everyone not to panic is that if you're wrong, you're an idiot. As opposed to being wrong when predicting the apocalypse, in which case everyone just laughs at how silly you were for predicting the apocalypse. If you want to win every argument with no danger of coming down with "Long Term Idiot Stigma", be a consummate pessimist. If you think about it, probably every argumentative asshole you've ever met is one.

Here's why you shouldn't panic:

- The Mexican Government estimates that 86 people (or more) have died from Swine Flu. Okay, that's tragic. But why the hell are we taking their numbers at face value? For starters, if you read the fine print the death numbers being tossed around are estimates. There are 18 confirmed deaths so far. Which ain't awesome, but it's a damn sight better than a hundred.

- In quite a few articles I've read, I've seen statements to the effect of researchers aren't sure why the cases in the US and Canada appear to be milder than the ones in Mexico and none have resulted in death. I know we'd all like to pretend that Mexico has its act together, but last time I checked Mexico was a third world country with third world healthcare. Do the math.

- Speaking of no one having died in the US and Canada, not only has no one in a first world country died from Swine Flu yet, but so far no one's even rumored to be in danger of dying. And most of the confirmed cases got better on their own after a few days at home. EVERYBODY PANIC

- It is no doubt a source of great disappointment to MSM that they can't add that Swine Flu is "drug resistant" or "there's no known cure". Because it's neither, it responds to Tamiflu and other treatments. Yes, I realize there are distribution hurdles in the event of a huge outbreak, but currently it's not an issue and I don't expect it will become one.

PS: if anyone is offended by my portrayal of the Mexican Government and their suckasstic healthcare system as a bunch of 3rd world incompetent boobs, which they are, you'll get over it


You won't see this discussion in MSM because, as humans, we're primed to act on fear. It's human nature. MSM is a reflection of what people are reacting to, not a reflection of what's actually going on in the world. People click the hell out of fearmongering articles, so MSM keeps running them. That, and no MSM outlet wants to be the guys who "didn't see it coming". Buncha pansies.

The problem with making fun of MSM pandemic reporting is that eventually there's going to be a pandemic. You don't have to be Nostradamus to make that call, it's as likely as War, Famine, Taxes, and me drinking beer after dinner (or during). So, although I put myself at risk of contracting "Long Term Idiot Stigma" by saying it, let me be the first to tell you this ain't the big one.

Don't Panic.

 

[NeSchn]

its turning to a global pandemic quickly yes. there is a cure but the cure is low on stock
oh yeah and it started in mexico if i heard well.
i should say. this pandemic "MUST STOP"
before the world dies

there is no cure the cure or vaccine right now for this "specific" H1N1 virus (swine flu) will not be out for at least 6months thats how long it takes to make a vaccine for a virus there just telling people in mexico that so they dont freak out.

heres some people who know more about the flu than any of us talking about whats going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_U5_dNyqo
watch all 4 parts

Actually the CDC says if you take Tamiflu within two days of experiencing symptoms you will be fine. So there is a cure, just not a vaccine,

 

[epicelite]

You know what I don't understand?
The people who think the government is out to kill everyone.
What would they gain from doing so?

I mean think about it! There is nothing to gain from that!

WTF? Can someone explain?

 

[dinofan01]

You know what I don't understand?
The people who think the government is out to kill everyone.
What would they gain from doing so?

I mean think about it! There is nothing to gain from that!

WTF? Can someone explain?

Who the fuck thinks that? No sane person does. Making the people powerless is another story.

 

[epicelite]

Conspiracy theorists?

 

[dinofan01]

Only slightly. Not an extremist though.

 

[Talaria]

Actually the CDC says if you take Tamiflu within two days of experiencing symptoms you will be fine. So there is a cure, just not a vaccine,
Tamiflu is not a cure. In lay-man's terms many viruses work by mimicking protein's which are easily absorbed into the cell's in the body in which effectively the virus reprograms the cell and replicates the virus many times until the cell then bursts/dies releasing the newly created replica viruses which then go forth to to other cell's and do the same. All Tamiflu does is smother the cell's so the easily absorbed protein's which are mimicked by viruses are not allowed entryway. Doctors then hope because the virus cannot enter cell's and reproduce the remaining viruses in the body will die out during the short time frame in which Tamiflu (typically 72 hours). Now with all this replicating going on all the virus needs to do is mutate one strand or several of RNA/DNA code in the Virus differently resulting in a different protein combination which bypasses the safe guard of Tamiflu. This only has to happen to one person and if they were to go out into public as they think they're all good now they've taken Tamiflu, they could go shopping in crowded mall/go to the movies etc breathing all over people during their excursion resulting in possibly several other people getting infected which effectively spreading to more people. And now because it's mutated Tamiflu is now redundant and they cannot lessen the spread. But hopefully it doesn't mutate, the current form of Swine Flu appears mild outside of Mexico.

QUOTE(Canonbeat234 @ Apr 30 2009, 11:09 AM) You know what I don't get about this swine flu? Why did it originate in Mexico, however none of the pork products there are infected. To me the government done this bullshit to keep us on our toes, straying away from other important matters.

Pigs generally don't travel around until they're killed and exported around world. Therefore very few pigs would have this strain of flu. On the other hand a mexican who works on a pig farm may've been working with those pigs in which he caught this strain from, the difference with this strain is it can travel from human to human. This person then goes into town and sneezes on several people and then returns home. As you can see here the virus spreads around quickly from human to human. Meanwhile not many pigs catch the virus as the infected pigs aren't really going to run away from there farm and visit all the other farms.

 

[wchill]

Yes, Talaria is right.
Tamiflu is not a cure-all for flu viruses.
Once flu viruses mutate enough, Tamiflu won't do anything and then we have nothing to stop this except our immune systems.
Really, if you don't need Tamiflu, don't take it. Please. You're only encouraging the spread of mutated viruses.

 

[Isaiah]

No offense intended but I bet all countries which have Muslim as their primary religion don't have swine flu.


EDIT:
Talaria knows too much.

 

[Raiser]

(live in Canada, BC and) I heard from my dad who heard on the news that some teenager came back from a trip in Mexico to somewhere like Kootenay or Kamloops and he's infected.
So he's been quarantined in his house until further notice. Hope it doesn't spread towards the lower mainland. T.T

 

[Scorpei]

Just skimmed through the topic, one thing I felt nice to mention; don't eat any meat uncooked

. When cooking the meat you kill most of the bugs/creatures on there. Viri should also be destroyed (can't really say killed there).

Mind you getting sick every now and again ISN'T bad. There's even a few theories out there that people with for example a herpes infection ('koorts lip'?) have a lower chance on developing immunologic diseases. It most probably keeps the immune system in balance (T regulatory cells). Also as far as I've been able to gather most if not all fatalaties were in Mexico. Aside from that it is spreading quite nicely so it seems to me like it will be a matter of time before it reaches wherever you are

. The worst thing to do however is panic and start doing weird stuff that in turn weakens your immune system (like I, and prolly everyone else

, already said). Just try to keep yourself up and running normally, sleep and eat well etc.. Ah yea, and when you're sick don't go visit your grandparents or whatever as they are less risitant to diseases.

Something that I find funy, aside from the conspiracy theories

, is that people who had the bird flu and lived (and developed an immunologic response to it) are/should be better equiped to deal with it (as they have H5N1 anti-bodies

).

edit
@puyodad: Mind you a pandemic is a serious problem. Due to globalisation it is relativly very easy to spread a sickness very quickly over the entire world.

These kinds of virusses are also a great candidate for such things, as they are multi chromosomal. This swine flu probably came to be because a swine was infected with both a human flu and a swine flu. When both infected one cell at the same time both were produced by that cell (that is how a virus works). Because of that instead of either a swine flu body was produced or a human one, they 'merged' as it were. One new flu body with both swine and human aspects. That way this new flu is capable of spreading from human to human ('human part') but also contains the external properties of a swine flu (H1N1) meaning that only a few people in the world are capable of a secondary immuno response (only a few people have ever been in contact with the H1 or N1 component).

Now you ask, then why don't way more people die of regular flu (aside from the fact that they might

)? Well, say if a disease is highly infectious and kills everyone within days. Then it can't reproduce (as it needs a host), therefor that strand dies out. Something that doesn't kill everyone, but say 30%, during the time it takes to kill 30% of the people they are added to the population again (via for example child birth). Then you have balance. Regular flu has been around for a while, though it does keep mutating (which is why you keep getting the flu eventhough you've had it many times before).

Mind you I've just spammed a bit of what I know, by no means take this as THE TRUTH or whatever. I could well have made mistakes along the way and people who know more then me feel free to correct me

.

 

[NeSchn]

EDIT:
Talaria knows too much.

I agree, thanks for the info though Talaria, that was a lot of heavy duty reading lol.

 

[p1ngpong]

This is fearmongering of the highest order guys. Many people on this thread have said it and it is true.

All the media instantly jumped on this, claiming we were on the verge of a new global pandemic, when nobody really knew anything about this. Now the world health organisation have said this will be a pandemic, when things like this are impossible to predict, and even now cases of swine flu have been very small and limited. We have been slowly programmed to expect something like this to happen. Ebola, SARS, bird flu have all been blown out of proportion in the past and hyped to the extent that we were told something like this would be inevitable, not at some point in time in the future, but very soon.

And to people claiming conspiracies. You are in fact not making ridiculous assumptions.

Viruses and diseases jumping cross species are incredibly rare. The chance of something like this mutating and effecting three, completely different species are slim at best. The chance are in the trillions, Im not joking. A disease jumping from birds, to swine to humans is almost impossible. Mutations just dont work like that. In many cases something like this would not be able to sustain itself, it would burn itself out very quickly. This is because viruses of this nature are usually freak mutations which dont survive the replication most diseases go through, some 10.000 mutations a day at least. And the fact its spread so far, in so many random pockets of the globe also makes for yet another unusual impossibility.

This does not have the hallmarks of a random virus, its hallmarks are those of a specific design. Design to jump species the way it does, and to sustain itself.

And like I said the way the media have jumped on this is crazy, the total number of infected people and dead is nothing. Normal influenza itself kills between 15.000 to 30.000 people in the US alone. This has come nowhere near that to warrant this amount of hysteria.

Thats my thoughts on this anyway.

 

[NeSchn]

This is fearmongering of the highest order guys. Many people on this thread have said it and it is true.

All the media instantly jumped on this, claiming we were on the verge of a new global pandemic, when nobody really knew anything about this. Now the world health organisation have said this will be a pandemic, when things like this are impossible to predict, and even now cases of swine flu have been very small and limited. We have been slowly programmed to expect something like this to happen. Ebola, SARS, bird flu have all been blown out of proportion in the past and hyped to the extent that we were told something like this would be inevitable, not at some point in time in the future, but very soon.

And to people claiming conspiracies. You are in fact not making ridiculous assumptions.

Viruses and diseases jumping cross species are incredibly rare. The chance of something like this mutating and effecting three, completely different species are slim at best. The chance are in the trillions, Im not joking. A disease jumping from birds, to swine to humans is almost impossible. Mutations just dont work like that. In many cases something like this would not be able to sustain itself, it would burn itself out very quickly. This is because viruses of this nature are usually freak mutations which dont survive the replication most diseases go through, some 10.000 mutations a day at least. And the fact its spread so far, in so many random pockets of the globe also makes for yet another unusual impossibility.

This does not have the hallmarks of a random virus, its hallmarks are those of a specific design. Design to jump species the way it does, and to sustain itself.

And like I said the way the media have jumped on this is crazy, the total number of infected people and dead is nothing. Normal influenza itself kills between 15.000 to 30.000 people in the US alone. This has come nowhere near that to warrant this amount of hysteria.

Thats my thoughts on this anyway.

Well put, I wish we could send this to people so people will stop shitting there pants. Schools all over the place are closing down and shit for 2 weeks so they can keep clean and everything. Serious, they need to stop, Schools are just adding to it. Its ridiculous. I can see maybe closing the school for a day or two to make sure its all clean and install some Germ-X dispensers all over or something, but going to the extent of closing schools for a number of weeks is fucking ridiculous.