Killer Flu!

[Majic]

Swine flu is a bunch of useless jibberjabber. Anyone worried about shit like that is retarded. No offense to those with actual mental disabilities.

And the deaths in Mexico are partially due to a poor health care system, and the rest is cultural tradition. Most folk in them parts believe in riding out illness without assistance. And thus, a small unlucky portion (mainly in high risk groups) who might otherwise be able to beat the affliction die instead.

[Bullet Magnet]

No, it is justified because of the behaviour of flu. When it dies out in the northern hemisphere, outbreaks spread to the south, and then it can come back. In the past new flu viruses have disappeared, then returned a few months later far more deadly. This already has human to human infection possible, all it needs now is to infect a single human or pig already infected with H5N1 to produce a new strain of virulent human-human infection with a mortality rate of 60%.

[Havoc]

Shhhh! You'll scare everyone shitless!

[Wings of Fire]

Methinks this guy is smart.

[Bullet Magnet]

It's Thunderf00t. Of course you think he's smart.


He is.

[mitsur]

I looked up at Seattle Times for the statistics for cases right now.

• Est. 6,778,175,505 world pop right now.
• Est. 1,900 worldwide cases right now.

That means that (1,900 / 6,778,175,505) .00000002803% of the world population is infected with Swine Flu as of today.

And out of this number, only 44 have died from it, maybe 43 since the baby was reportedly already sickly.

OH SHIT

[Havoc]

Your missing the point. There's no reason to be worried, YET. But like scientists say, like the guy in that video says: this virus has the actual potential to become a pandemic unlike the regular flu. When that happens you'll see those numbers sky rocket in less then a month.

Also, very informative video. Certainly some things in there I didn't know.

[Bullet Magnet]

How much worse who it be without the WHO, I ask you?

A lot worse.


When it comes to new diseases, cynicism kills. Thunderf00t made that quite clear. This is how all deadly pandemics start, but it is also where they are stopped before they happen.

[Pilot]

That means that (1,900 / 6,778,175,505) .00000002803% of the world population is infected with Swine Flu as of today.

Ouch. Crash and burn for the Media Hype. That is, if more people were to actually invest in some facts for themselves.

I smelled a dirty pig all along.

[Nate]

When it comes to new diseases, cynicism kills. Thunderf00t made that quite clear. This is how all deadly pandemics start, but it is also where they are stopped before they happen.

True, but cynicism is caused by crying wolf one time too many.

[Bullet Magnet]

When the act of crying wolf scares the wolf away! If it were not for the WHO, I don't doubt at all that SARS would have been the pandemic we've been anticipating. Bird flu hasn't gone away either, only the media's interest in it.

[Dixanadu]

Chris Redfield has been sent by the government to combat swine flu, so stop worrying. The infected tend to grow a snout, hooves and a springy tail upon infection. The government has insisted that swine flu has NOTHING to do with a shadowy mega corporation.

Just be clear.

[Hobo]

Swine flu is a bunch of useless jibberjabber. Anyone worried about shit like that is retarded. No offense to those with actual mental disabilities.

And the deaths in Mexico are partially due to a poor health care system, and the rest is cultural tradition. Most folk in them parts believe in riding out illness without assistance. And thus, a small unlucky portion (mainly in high risk groups) who might otherwise be able to beat the affliction die instead.

WHY DON'T YOU STAY:'(

Your missing the point. There's no reason to be worried, YET. But like scientists say, like the guy in that video says: this virus has the actual potential to become a pandemic unlike the regular flu. When that happens you'll see those numbers sky rocket in less then a month.

Also, very informative video. Certainly some things in there I didn't know.

Your whole attitude towards Swine Flu strikes me as naive, you are listening to and buying into the scaremongering. At the moment, it is reckoned this is equal to or worse than regular influenza in terms of fatality.

[Bullet Magnet]

Regular influenza kills a lot of people, but most people have a residual immunity from similar previous strains that prevents the spread. Nobody has a resistance to swine flu, meaning that if proper precautions are not made, very quickly orders of magnitude more people could catch it than ever catch regular flu, which means orders of magnitude more deaths and no way to contain it. And more people catching it means it is more likely for one person to catch it and another strain of flu at the same time (ie bird flu) which means we could then have a particularly lethal strain spreading just as fast on our hands.

Ignore the media's "scaremongering". The WHO is at a level 5 alert for a reason, and it is people who actually know something about infectious diseases, not over-excitable journalists, who you should be listening to.

As I've said before, the simplest of precautions (ie washing hands regularly) can have massive effect on inhibiting the spread of a respiratory virus. Ignoring this advice due to cynicism or apathy costs lives.

Christ.

[Nate]

The WHO is at level 5 because they softened the levels after SARS so that the levels would be upgraded sooner and scare the public.

[Bullet Magnet]

Pre-2009 revision.

Phase 1: No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans. An influenza virus subtype that has caused human infection may be present in animals. If present in animals, the risk of human infection or disease is considered to be low.

Inter-pandemic

Phase 2: No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans. However, a circulating animal influenza virus subtype poses a substantial risk of human disease.

Phase 3: Human infection(s) with a new subtype, but no human-to-human spread, or at most rare instances of spread to a close contact.

Phase 4: Small cluster(s) with limited human-to-human transmission but spread is highly localized, suggesting that the virus is not well adapted to humans.

Pandemic Alert

Phase 5: Larger cluster(s) but human-to-human spread still localized, suggesting that the virus is becoming increasingly better adapted to humans, but may not yet be fully transmissible (substantial pandemic risk).

Pandemic

Phase 6: Increased and sustained transmission in general population.


Post 2009 revision:

Phase 1: no viruses circulating among animals have been reported to cause infections in humans.

Phase 2: an animal influenza virus circulating among domesticated or wild animals is known to have caused infection in humans, and is therefore considered a potential pandemic threat.

Phase 3: an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus has caused sporadic cases or small clusters of disease in people, but has not resulted in human-to-human transmission sufficient to sustain community-level outbreaks. Limited human-to-human transmission may occur under some circumstances, for example, when there is close contact between an infected person and an unprotected caregiver. However, limited transmission under such restricted circumstances does not indicate that the virus has gained the level of transmissibility among humans necessary to cause a pandemic.

Phase 4: characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.

Phase 5: characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Phase 6: characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

The only difference I can discern between pre and post revision is that post revision phases are much clearer about what constitutes each phase.

[Nate]

I believe the changes to which I was referring were made in 2004-5ish.

[Bullet Magnet]

I can only find National Preparedness Guidance revisions for 2005, the first since 1999, which included the above pandemic phase levels, but no indication of a six-phase system being in use prior to that.

[Dixanadu]

I can only find National Preparedness Guidance revisions for 2005, the first since 1999, which included the above pandemic phase levels, but no indication of a six-phase system being in use prior to that.

You're a living Wikipedia, you know.

I have the feeling by the end of this year, the entire matter will most likely dissolve. Apparantly a vaccine is under way and will be ready for administration in the winter time where the virus is more likely to be active, so most likely by Spring, it'll be all gone.

At least how I see it.

[Wings of Fire]

You're a living Wikipedia, you know.

Understatement of the century, BM can't be edited by any old doofus <3.

[Mac Sirloin]

I looked up at Seattle Times for the statistics for cases right now.

• Est. 6,778,175,505 world pop right now.
• Est. 1,900 worldwide cases right now.

That means that (1,900 / 6,778,175,505) .00000002803% of the world population is infected with Swine Flu as of today.

And out of this number, only 44 have died from it, maybe 43 since the baby was reportedly already sickly.

OH SHIT

I love you

[OANST]

I officially know someone who died of swine fly. Ryan Settlemoir (a Madison Heights police officer), died of the disease recently. We both went to the same private Baptist school, and he was a year older than me.

[Pilot]

I officially know someone who died of swine fly.

[shaman]

I officially know someone who died of swine fly. Ryan Settlemoir (a Madison Heights police officer), died of the disease recently. We both went to the same private Baptist school, and he was a year older than me.

I'm sorry to hear that.

[Pilot]

I'm sorry to hear that.

No you're not.

[OANST]

I'm not either, really.

[Nate]

I'm pretty sure my good friend Kale had Swine Flu last week. He lives right in Swine Flu Central (over the river, in the poorer suburbs) and was puking and coughing and coughing up puke and sore all over.

He didn't bother getting tested though.

[Havoc]

Well since it's officially a pandemic now, I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet. There have been a few infections right here in my city. One two year old and a women in her 40's I think.

The flu used to be pretty small here but in the last two weeks the numbers more then doubled here. Going from 20 infections to more then 85. Most people just get really sick, no one has died yet. Though we have one person in the Intensive Care who is not doing so well last I heard.

[UnknownSlig]

How bout living in WI which is the most infected state

[Bullet Magnet]

Pandemic relates only to distribution. A couple of cases on a couple of continents would suffice. But this does mean that there can be several distant outbreaks instead of just one.