Swine Flue outbreak in Mexico, US; 20 confirmed dead.

[Monoriu]

Are you afraid of the virus or the economic impact?  I mean 300 in a few weeks out of close to 7,000,000 people?  That's a drop in the ocean.  I honestly think without the media and governmental attention being paid to it, no one would give a fuck.  It's only the way it inconveniences people and disrupts the natural course of everyday life that seems to be truly impacting people.  Hell, more people die in random accidents than have been killed due to this.  I guess I just don't get it.  Wake me up when we have a repeat of the Spanish Infleunza Epidemic.  That would be worth taking seriously, that would be worth the craze and panic that some people seem to want to create.  This?  This is a damned farce.

In 2003, about 1,800 people in HK were infected with SARS, so the fatality rate is close to 20%.  What's scary about SARS is that there is no cure.  In fact there is nothing the doctors can do for you if you are infected.  Only thing they can do is to place you in quarantine so that you do not infect others. 

[Iormlund]

Are you afraid of the virus or the economic impact?  I mean 300 in a few weeks out of close to 7,000,000 people?  That's a drop in the ocean.  I honestly think without the media and governmental attention being paid to it, no one would give a fuck.  It's only the way it inconveniences people and disrupts the natural course of everyday life that seems to be truly impacting people.  Hell, more people die in random accidents than have been killed due to this.  I guess I just don't get it.  Wake me up when we have a repeat of the Spanish Infleunza Epidemic.  That would be worth taking seriously, that would be worth the craze and panic that some people seem to want to create.  This?  This is a damned farce.

As far as I know, the Spanish Flu was also pretty mild at the start. It was during the second wave that it started killing people left and right.
The real scary thing about this thing is its potential: it is now spreading from humans to humans and hardly anyone has any immunity, so it's just a question of waiting for a vaccine and praying it doesn't mutate into something more lethal.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Its the later waves that are the real killers.  We'll see how everyone is in Winter, and then realize this was absolutely nothing to be upset about and wait for the next pandemic to freak.

[Ed Anger]

My Detroit meeting was canceled. Detroit, the Mexico of the North.

THANK YOU SWINE FLU HYSTERIA!

[PDH]

My Detroit meeting was canceled. Detroit, the Mexico of the North.

THANK YOU SWINE FLU HYSTERIA!

Sue Kwame.

[Ed Anger]

My Detroit meeting was canceled. Detroit, the Mexico of the North.

THANK YOU SWINE FLU HYSTERIA!

Sue Kwame.

I'd get him a fruit basket.

[PDH]

I'd get him a fruit basket.

Marty?

[Ed Anger]

I'd get him a fruit basket.

Marty?

Marty is going to burn in hell.

[PDH]

Marty is going to burn in hell.

So I was RIGHT!

[Siege]

You are right!

[Sophie Scholl]

Thanks for the replies Iorm and Mono, makes more sense now.

[Josquius]

I love the Russians.
For some reason I'm watching Russia Today news- its interviewing some expert who claims its a big conspiracy against the pork industry just as how bird flu and mad cow disease were nothing but attempts by their opponents to damage the chicken and beef industries.

[Martinus]

I'd get him a fruit basket.

Marty?

Marty is going to burn in hell.

In a handbasket?

[Drakken]

As far as I know, the Spanish Flu was also pretty mild at the start. It was during the second wave that it started killing people left and right.
The real scary thing about this thing is its potential: it is now spreading from humans to humans and hardly anyone has any immunity, so it's just a question of waiting for a vaccine and praying it doesn't mutate into something more lethal.

But it didn't happen in 1976. It fizzled out. It MIGHT happen, but that doesn't mean it WILL happen. People didn't have vaccines and Tamiflu in 1918, and even they finally ended up discovering that injecting plasma from survivor donors did help decrease the mortality rate.

Speaking of mortality rate of the Spanish flu, people vastly overestimate its mortality rate. The Spaniflu wasn't the Black Plague. It killed around 2,5-5% of people infected, with estimations that 0,5%-1% of the population worldwide died. However, close to 50% of the population was infected, and it did kill adults in good general health as well as kids, oldies, the walking wounded, and the sick.

[Malthus]

As far as I know, the Spanish Flu was also pretty mild at the start. It was during the second wave that it started killing people left and right.
The real scary thing about this thing is its potential: it is now spreading from humans to humans and hardly anyone has any immunity, so it's just a question of waiting for a vaccine and praying it doesn't mutate into something more lethal.

But it didn't happen in 1976. It fizzled out. It MIGHT happen, but that doesn't mean it WILL happen. People didn't have vaccines and Tamiflu in 1918, and even they finally ended up discovering that injecting plasma from survivor donors did help decrease the mortality rate.

Speaking of mortality rate of the Spanish flu, people vastly overestimate its mortality rate. The Spaniflu wasn't the Black Plague. It killed around 2,5-5% of people infected, with estimations that 0,5%-1% of the population worldwide died. However, close to 50% of the population was infected, and it did kill adults in good general health as well as kids, oldies, the walking wounded, and the sick.

That still results in a horrific level of mortality, though obviously nothing like the Black Death. The real problem with an actual flu pandemic isn't that a large portion of the population will die (in the 1st world this is unlikely) but rather the huge social disruption it will cause. Our society will not work so well with half the people sick and the other half taking care of them, even if no-one dies.