- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 51,710
- Reaction score
- 35,488
- Location
- Washington, DC
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
You compared this to bird flu earlier, Zyph, and that is not a good comparison. WHO never elevated the threat level to 4 in either of those illnesses, and they are on the verge of lifting it to 5 right now over this flu.
To put that into perspective, the level system was introduced because of the bird flu, and has never topped 3 since that time over the bird flu. That means that those who know about these things believe this strain is a far more significant risk than the bird flu ever was.
Instead of using the media's idiocy to gauge the threat level, you should be using the people who never really freaked out about bird flu as your gauge.
The biggest difference being human-to-human transmission. This is not occurring with the bird flu at high rates, but is with swine flu.
Reasonable precautions would be appropriate in this scenario. For example: I would normally not seek immediate medical attention if I had flu-like symptoms. I would rest and take fluids. Now, If I have flu-like symptoms I will seek medical attention. I will also replace my normal friendly handshake with an Obama-approved terrorist fist-bump and wash my hands more often after contacting other people.
I'm not about to stockpile surgical masks or anything, but I think reasonable precautions are warranted in this scenario.
And I guess this is actually a better representation of what I'm thinking when I say that I'm not really that worried about it. I'm not completely and utterly thinking its all made up, and yes I probably will find myself washing my hands a bit more often or being a bit more observant to flu symptoms. But then, if this was getting even half the type of media coverage its getting I'd probably do that simply because there's some truth to the fact that its out there and may as well take a few extra basic precautions.
Its the people that are now forgoing eating pork because they think they'll get it. Its the people that think they need to walk around with surgical masks on. Its the people that are acting like this is the next coming of the black plague that bother me.
There's taking reasonable precautions to a disease that legitimatelly is real, just like bird flu or sars or whatever is real and just like the normal flu is real, and then there's going over the top and blowing it out of proportion to great lengths.
I guess when I talk about my "worried" level I do it relative to the general atmosphere I see around me.
I'm keeping an eye on it out of curiosity, but as you say, I'm doing so through slightly more reputable sources than our idiotic ratings driven loves to stir up fears media.