So I was reading in The Times that Swine Flu has reached Level 6, an official pandemic.

 

 

 

Here is the article I read: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 481905.ece

 

 

 

So what are your thoughts on this? Unfortunately for me, this could disrupt my school next term, which would probably be the most important one in my life. A countrywide shutdown of schools of the Autumn term in Britain may be the only answer for this.

 

 

 

Reactions and thoughts to Swine Flu reaching an official pandemic stage?

This is kinda old news...I think this was announced Wednesday or something.

 

I don't understand why...here is the timeline of the swine flu:

 

 

 

-It's announced, everyone freaks out

 

-Long period of silence

 

-Oh crap, it's a level 6 now!

It hadn't been posted so I thought I would catch peoples reactions that it has reached pandemic stage. The thing is, you say that timeline exists, but not many have noticed that it has reached Level 6. Knowing the TIF community it would have been posted instantly :lol:

I kind of got in the mindset that they overblew it when they first announced it, I still maintain that mindset.

"As the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the first flu pandemic for 40 years officially under way, the Governments Chief Medical Officer said that several million Britons would fall ill with the H1N1 virus. "

 

 

 

:shock:

Yeah I heard the WHO head give the announcement speech a couple of days ago.

 

 

 

Well, damn.

This is kinda old news...I think this was announced Wednesday or something.

 

I don't understand why...here is the timeline of the swine flu:

 

 

 

-It's announced, everyone freaks out

 

-Long period of silence

 

-Oh crap, it's a level 6 now!

 

 

 

 

 

The thing is, the long period of silence was because new cases became old-news, Yes it was slightly overhyped, but we also always get bored of the same topic in the news after a few weeks, and all that was happening was that the number of cases were slowly rising. But it was anything from a period of silence, just the news programs didn't think it deserved high news spots anymore.

A countrywide shutdown of schools of the Autumn term in Britain may be the only answer for this.

 

 

 

Let's not get too dramatic :P It's only flu really, it has a lower mortality rate than normal flu (at least it was when I last heard) and British scientists are getting close to being able to create an actual vaccine for it.

 

 

 

The real threat to us is man-flu. Now that's dangerous :ohnoes:

A countrywide shutdown of schools of the Autumn term in Britain may be the only answer for this.

 

 

 

Let's not get too dramatic :P It's only flu really, it has a lower mortality rate than normal flu (at least it was when I last heard) and British scientists are getting close to being able to create an actual vaccine for it.

 

 

 

The real threat to us is man-flu. Now that's dangerous :ohnoes:

 

The mortality rate at this point is 1/200, I think. I'm pretty sure that's greater than normal flu's mortality rate.

A countrywide shutdown of schools of the Autumn term in Britain may be the only answer for this.

 

 

 

Let's not get too dramatic :P It's only flu really, it has a lower mortality rate than normal flu (at least it was when I last heard) and British scientists are getting close to being able to create an actual vaccine for it.

 

 

 

The real threat to us is man-flu. Now that's dangerous :ohnoes:

 

The mortality rate at this point is 1/200, I think. I'm pretty sure that's greater than normal flu's mortality rate.

 

We can kill ourselves much faster than that, why's everyone so scared about the flu?

Countrywide school shutdown in UK please.

 

Do not want exams.

 

 

 

Also, to anybody thats saying about the mortality rates, thats not what everyone should be worried about.

 

Its the fact that there is currently no surefire cure and, if it mutated and became deadly, we'd be well and truly [Cabbaged]*.

 

 

 

*Or there would be a zombie apocalypse

British scientists are getting close to being able to create an actual vaccine for it.

 

Lol. There already is a vaccine for it. There has been one since the day it was discovered, it just takes time to make.

 

 

 

Flu season starts in the Northern Hemisphere around October, and starting in March vaccines start getting made. They take about 5 months to mature and process, and can be made from any flu strain. H1N1, H3N5, H7N2, doesn't matter, its the same protocol. It just takes a few months to process them.

 

 

 

As for the flu itself... should be interesting. All the serious "oh crap" global flu pandemics that killed hundreds of millions all started the same. One year they showed up pretty softly in off season, and then they turned super deadly when the following flu season began. For those of you following along at home, this means the swine flu will hit hardest this October.

 

 

 

But knowing that, and having a college degree in Microbiology, I'm not worried...yet. This flu isn't any more deadly then the normal flu. The only reason it seems so is because the number of people that had/have swine flu is underrepresented. They only test the flu strain if you go to the hospital, and people assume thats all there is.

 

 

 

People infected with regular flu in 08/09:500 million

 

People killed from regular flu in 08/09: 600,000 or 0.12%

 

 

 

People infected with swine flu in 2008-2009: Unknown, only ~12,000 are confirmed

 

People killed from swine flu in 2008-2009: ~200 or 1.66%

 

 

 

So does this mean the swine flu is 10x as deadly? No, because most of the people that get it and live never report that they had it, they just think its normal flu. Back to my point, I'm not worried yet. Sure a ton of people will get infected this fall and spring by swine flu, but a ton of people always get the flu every year. The only thing that has potential to be a problem is if this thing mutates more over the summer. Flu mutates all the time, it has a segmented genome and if you get infected by two strains of flu at the same time they will merge in your cell and make a new disease. The only thing different with swine flu is that it has some avian elements (which is why I refer to it as Man-Bird-Pig flu, which is more accurate and sounds really awesome to any other SouthPark fans)

 

 

 

Since it has some avian genes it it harder for out bodies to fight it (our bodies still can, it just takes a few more days), and it can more readily exchange genes with avian strains... which tend to be quite fatal.

 

 

 

The way I see it, this is how things stand. The following is the probability I will say this after the flu season ends :

 

40% - "Swine flu? What swine flu?"

 

40% - "Well that was a slightly worse flu season"

 

10% - "That was quite unfortunate"

 

6% - "Well... that sucked"

 

3% - "Oh fark"

 

0.9% - "Oh holy fark"

 

0.0001%- (Zombie noises)

I kind of got in the mindset that they overblew it when they first announced it, I still maintain that mindset.

 

I agree, what hasn't the media over hyped? If I care about all these flu strains, I might as well start wearing a hardhat so a coconut doesn't fall on my head and kill me, and avoid my dog because I might one day have a fatal allergic reaction.

As Trapical said, Swine Flu will really hit later in the year, just because it's Level 6 doesn't mean it's suddenly mutated into some super-deadly-assassin flu...yet. Whether it will mean school closures during the flu season is up to chance, and for all we know, there's a significant chance it won't be any worse than regular flu. On the other hand, we might all be making zombie noises by 2010.

 

 

 

The way I see it, this is how things stand. The following is the probability I will say this after the flu season ends :

 

40% - "Swine flu? What swine flu?"

 

40% - "Well that was a slightly worse flu season"

 

10% - "That was quite unfortunate"

 

6% - "Well... that sucked"

 

3% - "Oh fark"

 

0.9% - "Oh holy fark"

 

0.0001%- (Zombie noises)

 

But theres always a chance of zombies....Gotta be prepared for these things.

I'm not sure how seriously to take this, every 3 years or so there's always a serious "pandemic" on the horizon I.e Sars, Bird Flu, Swine Flu etc. If I remember correctly though, they never gave Sars or BF level 6 pandemic though so it is something to watch out for.

 

 

 

Ireland is somewhat isolated, the only time I see a full scale outbreak happening here is if Britain get's hit. After that, other than Dublin, Cork and Galway it would be easy enough to protect ourselves from. At least the mortality rate isn't to high, once you have a well built immune system it gives you a good chance to overcome it. If it mutates though, it could get very worse.

woah. i think i crapped my pants when i saw this topic. but i'm still not worried. and even if i should be worried, i don't care, lol. it's just another flu.

It hadn't been posted so I thought I would catch peoples reactions that it has reached pandemic stage. The thing is, you say that timeline exists, but not many have noticed that it has reached Level 6. Knowing the TIF community it would have been posted instantly :lol:

 

 

 

I think everyone knew when the news came out NPR was even reporting early last week about the WHO deciding if it should be deemed pandemic. Here's the thing, no one seem to really care, and right now there is probably no reason to (unless you are in an area with confirmed cases).

Trapical covered things quite nicely.

 

 

 

The thing I've found interesting following the news and doing a little research is that it seems to affect mostly healthy young adults, not the elderly (which is a major risk group for the regular flu). As trapical said, there's always the chance that it could recombine with a different flu strain or mutate, which could make it more virulent come the next flu season. We're currently in our flu season at the moment, and Australia's swine flu rate is fast becoming one of the highest in the world, so it's important to monitor the progression of the disease and any changes here in Australia. It could be a sign of what's to come next season in the northern hemisphere.

 

 

 

At this stage I think all the "panic" (for want of a better term) is to do with covering all of our bases because we're not fully aware of how this strain might affect the population. We have some information coming in, and at least one study has suggested most of the markers for virulence that were seen in the Spanish Flu aren't present in swine flu, but still, it's worth keeping an eye on.

*yawn*

 

 

 

Swine flu bores me. Until it reaches the recognizability like polio, or the initial pandemic of enfluenza. Even AIDS has more of my attention than Swine Flu now. Or H1N1 as it's called now, because "the swine company's thought it bad for buisness". This politically-correct-bubble-wrapped-nerfed-sugar-coated world of ours makes me sick.

*yawn*

 

 

 

Swine flu bores me. Until it reaches the recognizability like polio, or the initial pandemic of enfluenza. Even AIDS has more of my attention than Swine Flu now. Or H1N1 as it's called now, because "the swine company's thought it bad for buisness". This politically-correct-bubble-wrapped-nerfed-sugar-coated world of ours makes me sick.

 

 

 

It was always called H1N1, and "swine flu" is technically inaccurate because it has components of human and avian flu in it as well. Given how people have overreacted buy avoiding pork products (thousands of pigs were even slaughtered in Egypt, from memory) when you can't get swine flu from them, it's prefectly reasonable to call it H1N1 instead.

*yawn*

 

 

 

Swine flu bores me. Until it reaches the recognizability like polio, or the initial pandemic of enfluenza. Even AIDS has more of my attention than Swine Flu now. Or H1N1 as it's called now, because "the swine company's thought it bad for buisness". This politically-correct-bubble-wrapped-nerfed-sugar-coated world of ours makes me sick.

 

 

 

It was always called H1N1, and "swine flu" is technically inaccurate because it has components of human and avian flu in it as well. Given how people have overreacted buy avoiding pork products (thousands of pigs were even slaughtered in Egypt, from memory) when you can't get swine flu from them, it's prefectly reasonable to call it H1N1 instead.

 

No it's not. Swine flu is so much easier to say and if stupid people want to starve to death then let them.

6 people in my town's schools have confirmed cases, but none in my high school. So I won't get it. Not that I've ever even gotten the regular flu in my life and that's a lot more common.

6 people in my town's schools have confirmed cases, but none in my high school. So I won't get it. Not that I've ever even gotten the regular flu in my life and that's a lot more common.

 

Last time I was sick... would be over 2 years ago when I had a fever, now all I get is pains in my stomach from overeating rich food (I swear my grandparents are trying to kill me with extra rich cakes : )

*yawn*

 

 

 

Swine flu bores me. Until it reaches the recognizability like polio, or the initial pandemic of enfluenza. Even AIDS has more of my attention than Swine Flu now. Or H1N1 as it's called now, because "the swine company's thought it bad for buisness". This politically-correct-bubble-wrapped-nerfed-sugar-coated world of ours makes me sick.

 

 

 

It was always called H1N1, and "swine flu" is technically inaccurate because it has components of human and avian flu in it as well. Given how people have overreacted buy avoiding pork products (thousands of pigs were even slaughtered in Egypt, from memory) when you can't get swine flu from them, it's prefectly reasonable to call it H1N1 instead.

 

No it's not. Swine flu is so much easier to say and if stupid people want to starve to death then let them.

 

Really?

 

Well, I've lost all hope. Anyone else?