Why Washington Fears Swine Flu

Nice perspective :roll_eyes:

1976: The swine flu scare

I had the T-Virus once. I beat it with lots of chicken soup and plenty of rest. Wasn’t so bad.

Oh, so it had happened before renny? OK, well in a way that changes things. For a minute or two I was thinking that this was something that has never been seen before! Some kind of weird hybrid flu dilemma that has never seen the light of day. :blush:

A serious article.

I thought it would be a joke that went something like:

Why is Washington DC so afraid of the spread of swine flu?

All those professional politicians living inside the beltway would be gone.

So glad it wasn’t …

T-virus? I’m more from the Captain Trips era. So when it’s over you going to Hemingford Home or Vegas? :smiley::stuck_out_tongue:

Flu is weird and I don’t know the particulars but I suppose this is a different strain of swine flu than the one in '76, just as that one was different from the one in 1918. Visit any old cemetery and look at the number of graves from 1918 and you’ll know why it is so frightening.

Quite a dilemma for the new administration and the first one he didn’t inherit.

I don’t know about ANY cemetery. Your results could get a little fudged by visiting a military cemetery and looking at 1918. :wink:

Hate to say it but I’m old enough to remember the swine flu program. I was old enough to be able to say no, and didn’t get the shot. I still have a general distrust of paternalistic government and medical establishments.

The story in the anime Vexille came to mind too… where the Japanese government declaired a medical emergency and inoculated the entire population.. naturally everybody was transformed into cyborgs by the nanobots…

Due to the pandemic outbreak of Swine Flu I have ensured that Mickaelia and I will be wearing masks whenever we answer phone calls and Help Tickets.

I think they are making a big deal out of nothing…but normally every flu season 250,000 to 500,000 people die from flu every year

It not like this flu cannot be treated.

I suggest anyone who enters the forum also don a mask

The problem with the swine flu, is that we catch it.

The second problem with the swine flu is that pigs can catch bird flu at the same time they have swine flu.

The viruses of the bird flu can swap their DNA with the viruses of the swine flu. So now a flu that humans have no immunity or natural protection against (bird flu)… becomes contagious to humans… and it is deadly.

So, any time there is a swine flu outbreak, you need to worry about bird flu also, which was what happened in all the really deadly pandemics.

Diane

Thanks Diane, that gives me perspective on why this swine is seen as a big deal. I just figured that it was like any other flu.

Round one.:smiley:

What he said…

YouTube - V.P. Biden: I Told Family To Avoid Planes, Subway Over Swine Flu#

What the White says he meant to say…

YouTube - Gibbs Addresses Biden’s Swine Flu ā€˜Fear Mongering’ – WH Press Laughs At Gibbs’s Response#

Matt Lauer 2 points for the pitch
Jack Tapper 1/2 point for the easy catch
Joe Biden 10 points for honesty and common sense
Robert Gibbs 10 point lack of pride penalty

Better make some popcorn this could go on for a while. Hold the butter though, the Whitehouse is currently requesting 1.5 billion in emergency money.

Reverse is also true. We can infect pigs/birds just as they infect us. The virus itself evolves. Very quickly. Mutation rate among bacteria is high, virus, very high (relative to ours of course). There are only a handful of animals that are affected by this virus, pigs, avian, (bird) species and us.

It’s hard to control outbreaks cause the virus is always evolving. We can really only slow down the virus so our body can destroy or get over it. Depending on the type of virus, you can stop synthesis of it’s genetic replication to straight up having medication kill what ever it is. Your body is less capable of fighting virii mainly cause they evolve so rapidly, generally hide their receptor proteins well and hide within our own cells.

IMO virii are scary for their ability so spread fast. Personally, I find prions scarier. Virtually indestructible.

A school district not 20mi from me has closed down for 2 weeks.

haha, at our school their response was ā€œif you get flu like symptoms, stay homeā€

You should get some of these :smiley: :
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/04/masks.jpg

Pupy, are these available online somewhere? I thought most of them were being hand decorated for kicks…

Not sure… I think you might be right, they could just be hand decorated. I want to get one for when I’m out riding my bike though… :cool:

you can get them online. A lot of hiphop/streetwear online stores carry those type of accessories. I know they use to carry something similar, but a full on bandana instead of a face mask at karmaloop. you can also try greyone. If I figure out where I saw stuff like that, I’ll be sure to let you know.