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SNAP ANALYSIS-New swine flu likely widespread, experts say

Harry Guerrilla said:
Is swine flu like the rage virus?

We will know whats happening in about 28 days. :lol:
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Hey, I'll get back to you guys... I'm gonna go get my riot gear and a shotgun. ;)


Duke
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
:rofl

I love zombie/outbreak type movies.
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I must say, speaking as a self-styled intellectual film critic (said with no small degree of self-mocking), that whole genre must be the absolute most fun to watch. :mrgreen:


Duke
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I think we turn down the alarmist thought a little bit.

Lets review some things first.

All the deaths have been reported in Mexico. A third world country were medical care and overall general health isn't all that great.

Second the MSM is going to have a field day being sensational in their reporting of the events that transpire.

Third if and or when it does spread, there is nothing you can do to avoid it for the most part. If and/or when you get sick treat as you do any other time you get the flu, lots of electrolyte rich fluids and plenty of rest.

Last but most importantly, do not take antibiotics to treat this, antibiotics only work against bacteria.

I think we will get through this just as we get through everything else.
Its seems scary but as of yet no one in the U.S. or any other first world country has died of this.
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While it might be comforting to think that advanced medical care and overall general health will prevent an outbreak similar to the 1918 flu pandemic, the truth is we have just been lucky. Mexicans might be a LITTLE less healthy overall than Americans, but we aren't talking about Zimbabwe here. Furthermore, the victims have mostly been healthy young adults and middle-aged people.

There is no particular reason that this couldn't become extremely virulent and extremely deadly throughout the entire world. Eventually the world will see another enormous flu pandemic...and this looks like as good a candidate as any.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I think we turn down the alarmist thought a little bit.

Lets review some things first.

All the deaths have been reported in Mexico. A third world country were medical care and overall general health isn't all that great.

Second the MSM is going to have a field day being sensational in their reporting of the events that transpire.

Third if and or when it does spread, there is nothing you can do to avoid it for the most part. If and/or when you get sick treat as you do any other time you get the flu, lots of electrolyte rich fluids and plenty of rest.

Last but most importantly, do not take antibiotics to treat this, antibiotics only work against bacteria.

I think we will get through this just as we get through everything else.
Its seems scary but as of yet no one in the U.S. or any other first world country has died of this.
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Actually, while antibiotics don't kill the virus, they do ward off secondary bacterial infections, which is what most people die of when they get the flu.
 
Kandahar said:
While it might be comforting to think that advanced medical care and overall general health will prevent an outbreak similar to the 1918 flu pandemic, the truth is we have just been lucky. Mexicans might be a LITTLE less healthy overall than Americans, but we aren't talking about Zimbabwe here. Furthermore, the victims have mostly been healthy young adults and middle-aged people.

There is no particular reason that this couldn't become extremely virulent and extremely deadly throughout the entire world. Eventually the world will see another enormous flu pandemic...and this looks like as good a candidate as any.
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Mexico is pretty freakin poor. Not Zimbabwe but still very very poor.

We have no idea the circumstances these people existed in before they got sick and people being alarmist and speculating doesn't add any value nor will it prevent any more infections.

I know having more advanced medical won't prevent an outbreak but if someone already has an underlying sickness getting the flu on top of that makes it a pretty ****ty situation.

The news outlets and people in general are starting to be alarmist.
 
danarhea said:
Actually, while antibiotics don't kill the virus, they do ward off secondary bacterial infections, which is what most people die of when they get the flu.
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Most often the ones who die of the flu already have compromised immune systems.

The general population should not be taking antibiotics for the flu.
It is part of why we are getting super strains of bacteria.

Every time I talk to someone who got the flu at work they say "I went to the doctor and he gave me some antibiotics so I'll be ok".

That is absolute rubbish.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
Mexico is pretty freakin poor. Not Zimbabwe but still very very poor.
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Mexico is considered an upper-middle income country. And Mexico City (the center of the outbreak) is wealthier still. It is a place where people watch television, use transportation other than their feet to get to work, and can afford to buy surgical masks. In other words, not a lot different from many American cities.

Harry Guerrilla said:
We have no idea the circumstances these people existed in before they got sick and people being alarmist and speculating doesn't add any value nor will it prevent any more infections.
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We do know the circumstances. Most of the people who died were healthy young adults who had no contact with swine.

Harry Guerrilla said:
I know having more advanced medical won't prevent an outbreak but if someone already has an underlying sickness getting the flu on top of that makes it a pretty ****ty situation.
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But that's what's so scary about this. Most of these people DIDN'T have any underlying sickness, which is a hallmark of a pandemic flu.

Harry Guerrilla said:
The news outlets and people in general are starting to be alarmist.
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This is a health emergency; they can and should report it as much as possible. When the media zeroes in on something like mad cow disease with virtually zero pandemic potential, then I will agree with you. But this is serious and seems like a very good candidate to become a major pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic killed more people than World War I. It also killed more people than the Black Death in the 1340s...and managed to kill as many people in 25 weeks as HIV has killed in 25 years.
 
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Kandahar said:
Mexico is considered an upper-middle income country. And Mexico City (the center of the outbreak) is wealthier still. It is a place where people watch television, use transportation other than their feet to get to work, and can afford to buy surgical masks. In other words, not a lot different from many American cities.
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What I've heard is that people all over the world are already infected with this form of flu.

That tells me at least that it has been around a little while.

Kandahar said:
We do know the circumstances. Most of the people who died were healthy young adults who had no contact with swine.
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Ok but what else? where they in the poor side of the city or what?


Kandahar said:
But that's what's so scary about this. Most of these people DIDN'T have any underlying sickness, which is a hallmark of a pandemic flu.
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Ok thats fine but how many people didn't report they were sick?
How many of those survived just fine?

Kandahar said:
This is a health emergency; they can and should report it as much as possible. When the media zeroes in on something like mad cow disease with virtually zero pandemic potential, then I will agree with you. But this is serious and seems like a very good candidate to become a major pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic killed more people than World War I. It also killed more people than the Black Death in the 1340s...and managed to kill as many people in 25 weeks as HIV has killed in 25 years.
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Its important but the containment time has passed and there is nothing you can do except hope your immune system will be able to fight it off.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
Its important but the containment time has passed and there is nothing you can do except hope your immune system will be able to fight it off.
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Harry, if that is what you choose to do, fine that's your call. But I think it is ill-advised to say there is NOTHING you can do but hope your immune system fights it off.

Isolation and using PPE if you must go out is one way of avoiding catching the flu. If you choose not to do this, that's your call... others may have different priorities, depending on the circumstances.

There are also antiviral drugs, one of which has been determined to be effective against this strain of H1N1.

If you choose to do nothing but hope for the best, that's your decision, but allow others the luxury of making their own choices rather than telling them there's nothing anyone can do, which isn't correct.
 
Kandahar said:
Mexico is considered an upper-middle income country. And Mexico City (the center of the outbreak) is wealthier still. It is a place where people watch television, use transportation other than their feet to get to work, and can afford to buy surgical masks. In other words, not a lot different from many American cities.
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A note about Mexico City. It is a place I know well (I used to live in Mexico, not far from the capital). It is a city of polarities; there are areas of opulence, and there are slums as well. Overall, it isn't as bad as some parts of the country of which I can think, but trying to generalize about a place like Mexico City is exceedingly difficult.


Duke
 
Goshin said:
Harry, if that is what you choose to do, fine that's your call. But I think it is ill-advised to say there is NOTHING you can do but hope your immune system fights it off.
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I'm well sure that anything you can do will offer minimal results in prevention.

Goshin said:
Isolation and using PPE if you must go out is one way of avoiding catching the flu. If you choose not to do this, that's your call... others may have different priorities, depending on the circumstances.
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PPE is questionable at best.

Consider human ticks and things you do everyday which puts you in contact with your hands and face.

Goshin said:
There are also antiviral drugs, one of which has been determined to be effective against this strain of H1N1.
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How available are these antivirals?

It may be effective but I'm not convinced this isn't alarmist media.

Goshin said:
If you choose to do nothing but hope for the best, that's your decision, but allow others the luxury of making their own choices rather than telling them there's nothing anyone can do, which isn't correct.
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There are things you can do, however, its questionable if they will have any real reasonable effect.
 
Since I'm an upbeat kind of guy, I'm going to try to put a positive spin on this one. If 10% of the worldwide population dies, that sure might help our economic crisis; the unemployment problem might clear up, for one. It sure would take a load off of the biosphere. And do you guys remember the Black Plague? Yeah, tons of people died, et cetera, but what happened right after that? The Renaissance! Everybody likes pretty paintings and music! So buck up!


The Duke of Optimisim
 
Duke said:
Since I'm an upbeat kind of guy, I'm going to try to put a positive spin on this one. If 10% of the worldwide population dies, that sure might help our economic crisis; the unemployment problem might clear up, for one. It sure would take a load off of the biosphere. And do you guys remember the Black Plague? Yeah, tons of people died, et cetera, but what happened right after that? The Renaissance! Everybody likes pretty paintings and music! So buck up!


The Duke of Optimisim
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Job opportunities galore!
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I'm taking the role as Rafael. He was considered a hotty in his time.
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Sounds like a plan. I'm going to shoot for Leo da Vinci; he might be a tough act to follow, but I think I'm just the man for the job. ;)


Duke
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
There are things you can do, however, its questionable if they will have any real reasonable effect.
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Harry, you seem quite determined to put down any efforts at self-protection from this as mostly useless. I have to wonder if that's to justify your own decision to do nothing.

I'm not just throwing this advice out from under my hat. I've consulted with doctors, homeland-security advisors whose specialty was pandemics and bioattacks, and other experts to come up with a plan to minimize the risk of catching a pandemic viral.

All were in agreement that isolation was the foremost strategy. Secondarily, PPE if you simply must go out among people during a wave of contagion. Thirdly, antivirals if you can get them in case you get infected anyway.

Whether the risks justify these measures depends on the exact situation, and we don't know that yet...but we do know cases are popping up around the world on an hourly basis, and we know Mexico has experienced a substantial fatality rate.

Every individual will make their own call on how they will respond, IF this goes into an actual pandemic with significant mortality. I think putting down the methods that doctors and other experts say is the best course of action in a pandemic is unwise advice.

I am far from "panic mode" or "alarmism" on this one, but I am watching it closely. The CDC says we are overdue for a pandemic of some kind, and this one is looking like a real possiblity. It may seem to happen very fast if it does go pandemic, and I'm just advising people to be ready... if not this one, there will be another and probably soon. Also, judging the fatality rate is tricky this early on... it may turn out to be nothing, it may turn out to be worse than it looks now.

G.
 
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Goshin said:
Harry, you seem quite determined to put down any efforts at self-protection from this as mostly useless. I have to wonder if that's to justify your own decision to do nothing.
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Not at all.

I'm being realistic. They are mostly useless.

Goshin said:
I'm not just throwing this advice out from under my hat. I've consulted with doctors, homeland-security advisors whose specialty was pandemics and bioattacks, and other experts to come up with a plan to minimize the risk of catching a pandemic viral.
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I understand. Like I said before I'm being realistic.

There will be one time that all of those protections will fail because humans don't normally operate under those conditions with constant use of PPE.

Goshin said:
All were in agreement that isolation was the foremost strategy. Secondarily, PPE if you simply must go out among people during a wave of contagion. Thirdly, antivirals if you can get them in case you get infected anyway.
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Isolation is the only way to avoid it in my opinion.

Goshin said:
Whether the risks justify these measures depends on the exact situation, and we don't know that yet...but we do know cases are popping up around the world on an hourly basis, and we know Mexico has experienced a substantial fatality rate.
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First thing is that we don't know the fatality rate since not everyone reports getting sick.

Some get sick and get over it.

Goshin said:
Every individual will make their own call on how they will respond, IF this goes into an actual pandemic with significant mortality. I think putting down the methods that doctors and other experts say is the best course of action in a pandemic is unwise advice.
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Its fine to do that.
I'm skeptical of what the media says because they also said global warming exists.

Goshin said:
I am far from "panic mode" or "alarmism" on this one, but I am watching it closely. The CDC says we are overdue for a pandemic of some kind, and this one is looking like a real possiblity. It may seem to happen very fast if it does go pandemic, and I'm just advising people to be ready... if not this one, there will be another and probably soon. Also, judging the fatality rate is tricky this early on... it may turn out to be nothing, it may turn out to be worse than it looks now.

G.
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It may, I'm not sure because there isn't enough evidence.

When enough evidence exists it will be either to late or not a big deal anymore.
 
Duke said:
My point exactly, man! This whole thing might even end feudalism again!


Duke
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All of you gleefully hoping for 10% of the world's population to die should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. That's sick sick sick.

I'd wanna be Rembrandt.
 
OH MY GOD! Swine flu. The Jihadist have deployed a bio weapon against us. Ya know muslims ain't to fond of swine. Maybe Osama was experimenting on the Mexicans and things got out of control. Everyone stock up on face masks, food, tamiflu, guns, ammo and beer. Ya never know they could be planning an invasion and it would really suck if we ran out of brewski's.:eek:




:rofl
 
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Cardinal said:
Heh, I don't know if you noticed, but the containment train left the station quite some time ago.

More like, boost your immune system. There are people recovering from this, which means they have stronger immune systems.

Eat right, exercise, don't drink alcohol, sleep well, take echinacea, yadda yadda yadda, wacka wacka wacka.
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Don't drink alcohol? Forget that! I will take my chances:mrgreen:
 
Kali said:
Don't drink alcohol? Forget that! I will take my chances:mrgreen:
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Alcohol, being a solvent, would dissolve the protein sheath protecting the viral DNA. Therefore, common sense tells you that alcohol will stave off the flu.

My advice is to drink heavily! :mrgreen:
 
celticlord said:
Alcohol, being a solvent, would dissolve the protein sheath protecting the viral DNA. Therefore, common sense tells you that alcohol will stave off the flu.

My advice is to drink heavily! :mrgreen:
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This is more and more really starting to sound like my kind of flu after all.
 
Didn't see this up anywhere.

Most suspected flu patients in Mexico now healthy | Reuters
Most suspected flu patients in Mexico now healthy
Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:44pm EDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two-thirds of the roughly 1,300 people in Mexico suspected of being infected with a fatal new strain of swine flu have been given a clean bill of health and sent home from the hospital, President Felipe Calderon said on Sunday.

Calderon said more than 900 people had been declared healthy and nearly 400 others with flu-like symptoms were in hospitals being checked.

Fears of a global swine flu pandemic are growing with new infections cropping up in the United States and Canada. Millions of Mexicans hid indoors to avoid a virus that has killed up to 81 people across the country.

Calderon reassured Mexicans that the flu is curable with drugs and said Mexico has ample stocks of antiviral medicine.

"It's very important to act fast and take this seriously, but it's also very important to stay calm, cooperate with authorities and inform them of any cases that arise," he said during a meeting of health officials.
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Discuss!


Information Duke
 
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