PANDEMIC/PANIC

[Fly Rod]

Was the swine flu a Pandemic? It most certainly was not. I know, I know, that you are going to tell me that Pandemic means global outbreak. There has been less then 200 cases of the swine flu in the USA to date, which by the way is influenza - A.

The news media played a big roll in creating panic amongest the people. They really hyped it up. I stopped watching the news for two days.

And the politicians stepped right up to the plate, and the senate even started to hold hearings on the matter, the President even was on national TV telling us to wash our hands. Do we need government thrown at us. Yes believe it, there are people that need to be told to stand here or there, I'm not one of them people, Sorry!

Why was there never any media hype with the common influenza - B virus? We don't go walking the streets with a mask. It's a deadly flu virus of which killed approximately 36,000 people in the USA in 2005 - 2006. Included in the toll are people that get the flu and have other complications from secondary bacterial pneumonia or other underlying chronic diseases.

How say you?

[spence]

Originally Posted by Fly Rod

We don't go walking the streets with a mask.

Go to Asia, they do this all the time.

This flu was considered a pandemic because it met the criteria, it spread so easily to humans and was a new strain of swine flu virus. That being said, until the virus is studied I don't think they really understood how big of a problem it was going to be. Certainly the media hyped the situation (like that's new) but I believe the government health experts were really afraid this could have become something much larger.

-spence

[Raven]

preparedness is non existent because the vaccine is not in stock.
on the one hand... but when bio warfare is a possible scenario
in the future, it's a good IDEA to see how quickly the CDC operates with something that spreads so rapidly.

the Media's quest for ratings On the other hand should not undermine the Nations Economy when it's already in recession by turning a
rather minor flu breakout into a media Pandemic of Fear.

Did we take precautions anyway here at home ...yep!

the airports are now using infrared scanners to spot people with a high fever ...but if your carrying the flu and not exhibiting symptoms
you'll just slip under the radar.

[JohnnyD]

Eventually, the ol' story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is going to come back and bite us in the ass.

This is twice in the last few years that "Hundreds of millions could be infected in a few weeks and millions of people could die."

Eventually, another flu like the Spanish Flu of 1918 will come around again. And it will spread even worse due to how much smaller the world has gotten. Unfortunately, people may get to the point of not paying attention or think international governments are over-hyping the situation.

Or I could be completely wrong. Doesn't matter how long people live in New England, as soon as the weatherman says there's snow coming, the supermarkets are packed and there's no more water on the shelf.

[buckman]

Wait till you see the big check $$$ the World Health Org. is looking for. Level 12 now I believe. No problem... we have more checks left.

[MakoMike]

Pure unadulterated hype by the news media. They pay "pandemic" which it was, without ever really defining the term. To most folks it sounds an awful lot like "epidemic" which it was not.

[MarshCappa]

IMHO it looks like they are handling it just fine. I don't too much information is bad in this case, especially if you have young kids that go to day care and school systems.

[Backbeach Jake]

When things get hyped like this, it's always to divert our attention from something else.

[FishermanTim]

When I heard the first references to the "Flu outbreak of 1918", the first thing to pop into my mind was a simple fact that these so called medical experts fail to acknowledge is that we have flu vaccines nowadays. Although that won't stop the flu, it does make your body more prepared to combat a variety of flu strains.
When they start to adjust the numbers of people that have contracted/died from this SWINE FLU (not H1N1), and the numbers go down, the "hype theory" get more credible as each day passes.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

When I heard the first references to the "Flu outbreak of 1918", the first thing to pop into my mind was a simple fact that these so called medical experts fail to acknowledge is that we have flu vaccines nowadays. Although that won't stop the flu, it does make your body more prepared to combat a variety of flu strains.

Ya, the 1918 pandemic was also before antivirals, and antibiotics for secondary infections.
US death toll was 675,000.
In the 1968 Hong Kong pandemic there were 36,000 US deaths which would have been a lot higher
without antibiotics and i believe it was before effective antivirals.
I had the Hong Kong flu back then and it was a bear.

Hope they can develop a safe vaccine for this strain before the fall
when it could become more of a problem.