PositiveVibez

How much confidence do you have in the U.S. government to handle this effectively? - AOL News Poll Results


Shows how much confidence us Americans have in our goverment...

Kishar

dammit, i wanted to make the Swine Flu thread.

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Those Americans who believed that we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted the American eagle to imitate the tactics of the ostrich. Now, many of those same people, afraid that we may be sticking our necks out, want our national bird to be turned into a turtle. But we prefer to retain the eagle as it is--flying high and striking hard. "FDR"

shelbert008

This shit scares me. Mainly because I live in Texas and we're right next to Mexico. And it slightly worries me that I go to a pretty large campus so that means there's that much more chance that I have of catching it. I fucking hate being sick... But I highly doubt that I would get sick. *knocks on wood*

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my_scatterheart

ahahahaha

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Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

myxomatosis

I was hoping no one would make this thread.

I am so fucking sick of hearing about this shit. Not only has it only affected a handful of people, shit isn't even killing people here yet. On top of that, the drugs we have don't even kill the shit. Just another spinach, peppers, tomatoes, pistachios, sars, bird flu bullshit overblown media sensation. I think I'd rather them jerk each other off about how violent the world is.

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oh sometimes the blues is just a passing bird
and why can't that always be
tossing aside from your birches crown
just enough dark to see
how you're the light over me

last.fm
blog deal (updated 12/22/11)

Grieves

population density and lack of proper food standards are to blame... I don't see this becoming a widespread epidemic in America and the like...

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Lloydy

mexicowned

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Keep the red flag flying high

mothernature

The flu is nothing to laugh or make light of.

The flu is a disease that has a high rate of mutation. The flu changes. It changes fast.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that an average of 36,000 people die in the U.S. each year from flu related deaths. This is from the common, controllable types of flu.

The flu killed 50 million people in 1918. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history.

The plague did not discriminate. It was rampant in urban and rural areas, from the densely populated East coast to the remotest parts of Alaska. Young adults, usually unaffected by these types of infectious diseases, were among the hardest hit groups along with the elderly and young children.

Now granted, we have antibiotics now, but there are strains of flu that are resistant to treatment and with the high rate of mutation, it is not a stretch to expect the 'super flu' to come along anytime now.

Now, am I going to live in fear, hiding in my house? No.

What really gets me is that so much could be prevented if people would just wash their fucking hands. I mean, really, it only takes a few seconds and so many people just don't do it.

OldMan&TheWeed

So people in rural areas are immune to the flu?

This is a casually spread virus. While it will spread faster in high density areas like Mexico DF, it will have no problem replicating in less dense populations as well.

I lived in Mexico for several years back in the 90s. I know how the IMSS works. Under normal circumstances they spring into action and do what they have to do. Since it is the only part of the federal government that the general population has any faith in, folks usually comply with their instructions. In the US however, people are less likely to follow instructions, and the government is less likely to initiate measures such as closing schools, churches etc out of fear of overreacting, harming the economy, or violating someones civil rights.

If we are left untouched it will be because the virus petered out on its own (as did the swine flu epidemic of 1976), not because the US public health system is superior.

If it does not peter out, I've read estimates of 5% mortality.

Who knows?

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

verklingen

some kids were infected in a town less than a mile north of me. all local school districts are closed and parents of children at the affected schools are instructed to quarantine. . . shit's pretty gnarly

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

OldMan&TheWeed

It's a virus.

Antibiotics are useless against a virus.

Our only weapons are hygiene and quarantine.

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

SmokeSomeDoja

interestingly enough, influenza, measels, smallpox, etc. etc. etc. were all derived from animals - humans living within close proximity to animals.

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fotoz fo yo azz



"I've run over black cats that were luckier than me."

verklingen

^ that's part of the reason westerners came to dominate the world. living/growing up in close quarters with animals, especially being holed up with them through harsh winters, hardened our immune system against pathogens that would later ravage aboriginals worldwide.

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

Flamingnun

Just like every other strain of the flu virus then?

H1N1 will probably turn out to be a big taco flavoured scam, just like the H5N1 was last year.

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Flamingnun

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Earthquake hits Mexico City

oh way to go mexico, piss god off as well while you're at it.

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my_scatterheart

It's called lol

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Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

myxomatosis

Back in the 1400's Scurvy was killing people left and right. It did not discriminate, anyone who was not getting any fruits and veggies was affected. Granted we have discovered vitamin C now...

Seriously? I'll leave the rest of it alone cause it pretty much got fixed and I'll just end up feeling bad.

Also the word fearmongering reminded me of scaremongering which reminded me of this:

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oh sometimes the blues is just a passing bird
and why can't that always be
tossing aside from your birches crown
just enough dark to see
how you're the light over me

last.fm
blog deal (updated 12/22/11)

Grieves

itt: unfounded paranoia...

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osirus2020

Shit's as funny as the bird flu, or SARS, but mainly SARS because it's kind of cool to say.

I don't worry about these possible epidemic type diseases/viruses/whatever because there are so many other ways I could die. You know, the news tells you about how bad the pig flue is and how it's going to kill like 100,000 people in a year or some bs that's probably never going to happen, but there are far more important things to worry about. Nuclear weapons, biological attacks, supernova, meteors are all things that could happen everday, but don't. Even things like crime, which happens everyday to millions more than the pig flu will ever affect, are overlooked by the news stations because it's so common it's become something most people care nothing about.

You have to be able to live a normal life knowing that this pig flu could kill you. Instead of worrying about catching it and featus-ing it up in your mom's basement, you just have to be able to put these terrible things out of your mind. If everybody was concerned about more common issues that are far more likely to happen to you, like dying a fiery death in a car crash, the world simply could not function.

Fuck, people put themselves in danger everyday, but then go panic about something like the bird flu. Shit's all backasswards.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

SmokeSomeDoja

word mang - an overwhelming majority of large domesticable animals are/were found in eurasia, almost none in the americas and none in australia

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fotoz fo yo azz



"I've run over black cats that were luckier than me."