Enough of the Swine Flu hysteria already...

[StageLeft]

In 6 months when the US population has dwindled to 190,000 from the flu, I'm going to bump this and you will feel awfully silly!!

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
blah blah blah

WTF is your point?

That's why it is critical to play it safe. The next Great Pandemic could easily kill 100 million people in today's connected world.

Did you even read his post?

 

[BoberFett]

So better safe than sorry means to incite panic? Gotcha.

OMG!!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

How was that? Did I use enough exclamation points?

 

[Fear No Evil]

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

So... half the cases are in the US and the survivability rate of this God-awful disease is a staggeringly frightening [/sarcasm] 99.3%? I've been putting up with this panic crap for weeks now. People are cancelling vacations. My own office manager is worried about catching it now that *gasp* 40 cases were discovered here in Hawaii. And what was the Dr recommendation to each one of them? Stay home until you feel better. Sounds dangerous.

What's dangerous is your pathetic lack of knowledge of the epidemiology of influenza and related diseases. So far, there haven't been an extraordinary number of deaths related to H1N1, but if you knew anything about the subject, you'd know there are several reasons this COULD pose a major threat:

1. Influenza often mutates during its intial outbreak. We have no reason to think this could not happen with the H1N1 strain.

2. It happened to break out in the northern hemisphere well after the normal winter flu season. Health officials are concerned that it could return next fall and winter flu season and spread much further with much greater virulence.

3. They will be closely watching what happens in the southern hemisphere which is just coming up on its winter flu season. That will give the disease more targets which to mutate in other environments. Since we know we should be watching it, it will also give us a lot more information about what to expect and how to deal with it.

Be VERY glad nations around the world are taking this very seriously. It could be relatively benign, or it could follow the worst case scenario or anything in between. The only difference between this disease and others is that, in this case, we have enough scientific knowledge about influenza to be able to monitor it and understand its behavior and possibly enough time to act to avoid a potential global health emergency. That beats the alternative of ignoring it and suffering possibly catastrophic consequenses that could have been prevented.

Originally posted by: teclis1023

your subtitle should really be, "get a grippe"

hehe

:laugh: WAAAY too subtle for the brain dead crowd.

We would save more lives through waterboarding than we would worrying about this flu.

 

[Miklebud]

Seriously... I canceled a vacation to Mexico over this shit. By the point, it would have been fine. Fucking A...

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: njdevilsfan87
I actually have something flu-like right now (have for the past 2 days). Wonder if it's the swine flu?

If you lick your arm and it tastes like bacon then you have the swine flu.

 

[imported_Dingster1]

Well at least now I don't have to walk into the E.R every night and see the waiting room full of masked people!

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: Siddhartha

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Manufactured hysteria at it's finest

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of confirmed cases of the new Influenza A (H1N1) flu has risen to 10,243 and the death toll has edged up to 80, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
Most of the new cases are in the United States, which has seen 5,469 outbreaks of the virus so far, the WHO said as it focuses on the H1N1 virus that has brought the world to the brink of a pandemic. :disgust:

Another 51 cases have also been reported in Japan, bringing the total number of cases there to 210 and potentially making it more likely that the WHO will declare a full pandemic after it raised its pandemic alert last month to 5 on a 6-level scale.

So... half the cases are in the US and the survivability rate of this God-awful disease is a staggeringly frightening [/sarcasm] 99.3%? I've been putting up with this panic crap for weeks now. People are cancelling vacations. My own office manager is worried about catching it now that *gasp* 40 cases were discovered here in Hawaii. And what was the Dr recommendation to each one of them? Stay home until you feel better. Sounds dangerous.

The whole thing would be laughable if it weren't so stupid and so many people weren't buying into it hook line and sinker. It reminds me of the SARS episode of South Park when Stan's dad gave his son instructions on what to do if he didn't survive... because there was only a 97% chance he was going to pull through.

Folks... THERE IS NO PROBLEM HERE. If there is, please point it out. If anything this is a great opportunity to study how a disease crops up in one place and spreads to others. It's an opportunity to practice preventing the spread of illness from one continent to another. Right now it seems to be used as little more than fear mongering.

How would you have handled this situation?

My OP wasn't about how to handle it. It was about the near insane levels of reporting it has received. Words like pandemic tend to freak people out. When you look at the numbers it just doesn't make any sense to worry about this thing. If anything, the news reports should be more in line with "hey, it's not as bad as originally feared... we're monitoring the situation to see if anything else happens. In the mean time there's no reason to rearrange your life or freak out about this". Instead it's all "terrer terrer terrer, pandemic!"

Others have pointed out why it caught our attention to begin with and I agree with them. And as per my OP I stated that this is something that needs to be studied. But the sheer unreasonable panic that this thing has been whipped up into by the press is crazy. The fact that it's NOT dangerous (99.7% survival rate with old people and young children at most risk... sound familliar? Not to mention that MOST of the deaths happened in a third world part of Mexico) makes what we see in the press completely irresponsible.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Fortunately, the media doesn't have a history of inciting pandemic panics over ailments that turn out to be relatively benign. Because we all remember how the world was devastated by ebola. Or SARS. Or the avian flu. Or now the swine flu. At this point, the global death toll should be around 13 billion people, which just means we're going to have to start reproducing a whole lot more so there are more humans to die to the next pandemic. Or maybe the media is just a business trying to maximize their revenue, and keeping people afraid glues them to their televisions to see what happens next. Responsible journalism? Sure... as soon as it's profitable.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

We would save more lives through waterboarding than we would worrying about this flu.

If you're really stupid enough to believe that, you can prove it. Next fall, instead of getting a flu shot, you can volunteer to be waterboarded and report back to us about how well that works for you.

Sean Hannity volunteered on the air to allow himself to be waterboarded for charity, and Keith Olbermann offered to donate $1,000 for every second Hannity lasted before conceding that waterboarding is torture.

So far, Hannity's been too chickenshit to accept Keith Olbermann's offer. :thumbsdown:

Let's see you put up or shut up. :light:

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
So better safe than sorry means to incite panic? Gotcha.

OMG!!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

How was that? Did I use enough exclamation points?

You need a noble peace prize for your efforts in public safety.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Jaskalas

Originally posted by: BoberFett
So better safe than sorry means to incite panic? Gotcha.

OMG!!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

How was that? Did I use enough exclamation points?

You need a noble peace prize for your efforts in public safety.

I'll remember you in my acceptance speech. *sobbing*

 

[Fear No Evil]

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

We would save more lives through waterboarding than we would worrying about this flu.

If you're really stupid enough to believe that, you can prove it. Next fall, instead of getting a flu shot, you can volunteer to be waterboarded and report back to us about how well that works for you.

Sean Hannity volunteered on the air to allow himself to be waterboarded for charity, and Keith Olbermann offered to donate $1,000 for every second Hannity lasted before conceding that waterboarding is torture.

So far, Hannity's been too chickenshit to accept Keith Olbermann's offer. :thumbsdown:

Let's see you put up or shut up. :light:

Thats the difference between you and I. I prefer to waterboard our enemies. You prefer to waterboard Americans.. I'll agree to be waterboarded and admit it was torture if you agree to be aborted and admit it was murder?

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

We would save more lives through waterboarding than we would worrying about this flu.

If you're really stupid enough to believe that, you can prove it. Next fall, instead of getting a flu shot, you can volunteer to be waterboarded and report back to us about how well that works for you.

Sean Hannity volunteered on the air to allow himself to be waterboarded for charity, and Keith Olbermann offered to donate $1,000 for every second Hannity lasted before conceding that waterboarding is torture.

So far, Hannity's been too chickenshit to accept Keith Olbermann's offer. :thumbsdown:

Let's see you put up or shut up. :light:

Thats the difference between you and I. I prefer to waterboard our enemies. You prefer to waterboard Americans.. I'll agree to be waterboarded and admit it was torture if you agree to be aborted and admit it was murder?

NO! Hannity opened his showboating mouth and volunteered to be waterboarded under for charity contolled conditions to prove his bullshit assertion that it doesn't constitute torture.

I don't want to waterboard anyone. It constitutes torture. It's illegal, and it's immoral. The difference between us is, you're willing to commit torture and other crimes against humanity, at all, EVER! That makes you one fucked up pervert.

Even worse, you're willing to pimp your disgusting immorality in the name of "defending" our nation, depite the fact that you can't prove that it ever stopped any attack by anyone, ever and despite the fact that commit such horrendous crimes intrinsically destroys everything Americans have fought and died to defend for over two hundred years.

You are sick and you are pathetic! :thumbsdown: :|

 

[FuzzyBee]

Wow. I thought this thread was about Swine Flu.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: FuzzyBee
Wow. I thought this thread was about Swine Flu.

Any thread Harvey posts to becomes a thread about Bush, awash in cheesy emoticons dripping with crocodile tears.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: FuzzyBee
Wow. I thought this thread was about Swine Flu.

Any thread Harvey posts to becomes a thread about Bush, awash in cheesy emoticons dripping with crocodile tears.

I could OP a thread about how much Bush sucked and Harvey would find a way to turn it into a Bush bashing thread.

 

[Ruptga]

why so serious? Is too much serious a symptom of swine flu too?!?

 

[manowar821]

I played with a girl last night in my bed and some white stuff came out of me, do I have swine flu?