OK, so, as I’m sure most of you are aware, there is an outbreak of Swine Flu with pandemic potential. So, all you people who like to cough without covering your mouth, hawk loogies onto the sidewalk, or run to the ER with every sniffle, please consider the rest of us who do not want to die from Swine Flu. It’s time to practice good secretion control for the next little while, so please, wash you hands, use a hankie and stay the hell away from work and other public places if you are ill. Don’t run to the ER unless you are actually having an emergency, and if you are in the ER, put a mask on.
—Your Friendly Neighbourhood Infection Control Advocate
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.
pandemic..i love how that word gets thrown around so much. sars was gonna kill us all, then there was the bird flu that had governments hoarding tamiflu…what ever happened to those killer bees from mexico? we were all gonna die…my god what should we do now?
swine flu has a kill rate of approx 5% in healthy adults without compromised immune systems according to the WHO. i find it irresponsible of news agencies to be constantly hyping up these stories in an effort to raise ratings and scare the populace.
im getting my hazmat suit and building my concrete bunker right now.
and to address your comment directly OP id fuckin love to stay home every time i had snot in my nose or coughed a bit, however my company does not provide paid sick days…and my landlord, bank, utility and credit card companies wont deduct from my payments because of sniffles.
I think what she’s trying to say, is.
Don’t be an idiot and take the right precautions.
5% is actually kinda high. Normal flu mortality rate is like 0.1% and Previous Flu pandemics were about 2-10%.
I think this one is worth being careful about, but the fact that we are aware of it this early in Canada means we should be able to contain it with sensible precautions.
Also SARS was VERY serious. It was the good response of governments and health agencies that helped to contain it and limit the damage. I suspect the same will hold true for Swine Flu. Pretend there’s no problem and you will have one, act like it’s serious and it won’t be.
I usually would be with John on certain aspect’s of his argument, no need for a wide spread panic, just be careful. However I’m done school and waiting for work, so I think my kid is going to be out of her daycare, they are the first place to be hit with any sickness, and a 2 year old doesn’t qualify as a healthy adult in my eyes. I’m not usually a paranoid crazy, but in this case, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Yep time to put on the tin foil hats again folks. We should all be dead by now between AIDS, SARS, Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, Asteroid Collisions, and so on and so on and so on. I’m fucking fed up with the media and others trying to scare the shit out of people.
In reality what’s really going to happen? Some people will get sick, fewer will die, and out of those who get better, they will use their blood to devise a vaccine.
er, a couple of people died from AIDS, and probably one or two more will die yet from it.
So…what does the mortality rate go up to for those of us with compromised immune systems?
Because I’m getting very VERY worried…Windsor’s a little too close to home…literally. Oh dear.
I would imagine it would be more likely to affect those with compromised immune systems, PK, as with all Flu viruses. However, one can defeat said flu without issue generally with simple hand washing and being careful about exposure. And no, wiping your house down with Lysol wipes isn’t going to save you. This flu seems so aggressive because it began in Mexico City, which, besides being close to being the world’s largest city, it certainly has one of the most dense populations, not to mention poor. I think when it finally makes it’s way to places like Canada and the US (and by that I mean, not small instances) it’ll quickly die off.
I’m glad I wasn’t raised in a bubble.
My immune system is a beast…
you’d swear I was licking walls, kissing hobo’s, and eating with my unwashed hands off the floor to get a failure rate so low.
Can’t scare me…. I’ve drinken Manhattan tap water without a second thought.
Manhattan has one of the best and cleanest drinking water systems in the world.
But even if it didn’t, bacteria, and the immune system’s response to bacteria, have nothing whatsoever to do with viral infections.
Swine flu will kill us all! EVERYBODY PANIC! Duck and cover!
Oh, for fuck’s sake – the media has muckled on to this like a dog to a postman’s leg – panic makes great news and I refuse to buy the hype anymore. I am so tired of microscope journalism and their examination of every fucking minute detail.
Media panic machine aside, it is still advisable to take potential threats like this seriously. That doesn’t mean tin-foil hats and stockpiling canned goods or anything, but like the OP and Dr.Fever said, hand washing and consideration for others is important.
Just the normal flu kills about 1500 Canadians a year. Infection control is just common courtesy these days. Also a good reason to get the Flu shot, it’s a good way to collect immunity to a variety of FLU strains. Since the virus likes to mix-and-match it’s genetic material, having immunity against a mild strain this year COULD confer immunity against a more aggressive strain later.
Imagine how pissed we’d be if the media didn’t report on this and all of a sudden Canadians everywhere are sick and dying. Forewarned is forearmed.
I don’t have sex with pigs, so I’m not really worried.
Are you positive you don’t hang out with anyone who does?
If the media could keep it in perspective, it would be one thing but they don’t or won’t. Yes, it’s nice to be warned but not to be pounded continually with the same info repeated over and over. Now, excuse me, there’s a pig I want to play tonsil hockey with.
LOL TTFN – Tell your mom I say hello 🙂
Heh-heh, NM, just remember to bring the XXXXL Depends on your next visit to the nursing home – she’s still pissed off that you forgot to clean her prosthetic ass cheeks.
She told me she wanted to rub it in herself – keeps ’em nice and supple!
yes,so i’ve noticed lately . i am disgusted if done by some dirty ragamuffin but still feel sorry for his/her lack of education being or social skills . but these are not ragamuffins, these are young dudes and girls that seem to have had education.
it’s some kind of coolness and trend ? another gangsta thing?
not sure, can anyone clue us into this sudden coolness to spit and expell your phelgm each time you walk by someone?
how is this seen to be cool? i am at a loss here.
Spitting on the sidewalk is my #1 pet peeve. Especially smokers and their sticky tar-filled phlegm. It’s a hold-over peeve from high school when all the smokers would hang out on the front steps and cover the area on spit so that there was no way to enter the building without stepping in some. Animals.
Anyway, legsman, I don’t know why it’s cool either.
Miles, you just made me throw up, but I completely agree.
Humans are disgusting !
Last night it seemed that Swine Flu was the main story on every news station. If there were a more interesting story available, I’m sure none of us would have heard about it. Maybe a few people. The media likes to builds these hype storms to attract the gullable, this will not change as annoying as it is. As misguided as the original complaint was I have to agree that spitting in public is gross, really, really gross. Please don’t spit in public. Be considerate of those around you who don’t want to see or dodge your fluids.
We live in a world of fear.
Kings-Edgehill is only a sneeze away from me, and I’m not too worried. Actually, not in the least bit worried.
Maybe I’m just too careless, but really, I could have died when that senile, wrinkled wad of flesh behind the wheel almost hit me at the crosswalk today.
I’ll just keep washing my hands, and covering my mouth. Oh yeah, it’s good thing I met those Mormons today, I’ll pray to the big man up above too.
what about the economic impact this will have, what if they are trying to play down the swine flu hmmm…?What if it’s worse than the media is letting on hmmm…??Keep control of the population’s fear reduce the panic, ever think about that!
yeah I’m bored….
I’ve got two live squirrel butts plugging my nostrils and a wet dishcloth tied around my mouth. I’m ready.
…seems like a good time to say:
Cover your mouth when you cough, but NOT with your HAND, which you touch a thousand things with every day!
Use a tissue, or, in a pinch, the crook of your arm (elbow pit).
Then what are you, Scott, HMMM??
There’s really nothing to be worried about. In the US alone its something like 30,000 people die per year from the plain old regular flu. And nobody above Mexico has died…yet. I know some of you have animal fetishes, but please…abstain from bestiality before the world ends.
Thanks Tim…. I didn’t know that.
That must be why it tasted a little funny…can’t imagine how many chemicals it’s seen over the course of going through several thousand people.
oh if those molecules could talk.
I bet it would be like the time they shrunk the magic schoolbus. I still don’t know how they got away with showing it exiting.
not everyone who hawks a loogie or goes to the hospital, or doesn’t cover their mouths has fucking Swine flu. There have only been a handful of confirmed cases here. And unless you are going to make sure everyone covers up or swallows that nasty luge… wear a mask if you’re so damn scared.
So it’s OK for people to not cover their cough and to hawk on the sidewalk? It’s bad enough when those behaviours spread the common cold and normal influenza, but when there is a more serious virus going around, the more everyone contains their secretions, the better off everyone else will be. It’s common sense.
And I’m not pushing the panic button or anything, but just pointing out that a handful of confirmed cases can turn into a lot more than that in a very short time.
Something like 3-7 million Canadian get the regular flu every year. Swine flu is transmitted like the regular flu. If we can’t control the normal flu enough to stop ~5,000,000 people from contracting it, how can we expect to control Swine Flu? Well, by being more diligent about washing hands and not coughing on people, for starters.
It’s about awareness and common courtesy, not paranoia and fear.
I know a couple on the plane that brought 2 cases to halifax…. they’re fine. I’d say it’s ok to relax here people,despite the fact that it makes 3-4 sections of the herald every day.
I’m not worrying about healthy adults getting the swine flu, I think (hope) that those cases would be mild and not worth panicking about. However, it can be a lot more serious in small children and seniors.
well said miles. there are always those who dont take precautions, be it normal cold and flu season or the swine flu. they will be among those who are at increased risk of coming down with a little swine fever.
our news agencies dont seem to be able to(or want to) stay on the side of being informative rather than creating panic.
I think if this does play out to be a bust, it’s too bad the media have overreacted the way they have. They have essentially cried “Wolf!” and no one is going to pay attention should a true pandemic pop it’s virulent head.
With infectious diseases a fast and aggressive response is needed to contain and control. However, it’s a double edged sword. When all that attention isn’t met with disaster, people scream “False Alarm” when, in fact, that overreaction may be exactly what contained the problem in the first place.
I await for the criticism to start rolling in if/when this swine flu scare blows over with minimal impact.
I definitely agree miles
“wear a mask if you’re so damn scared”
Actually, Mad Mom, it would make more sense for the sickies to wear masks, and that is exactly what is done sometimes in Japan out of respect and concern for others. Maybe that should catch on here.
“abstain from bestiality before the world ends”
Dino Jr….totally agree. Isn’t monkey tongue-wrestling how we ended up with AIDS?
Not every one who is sick knows that they are, so that presents a problem. Also, I didn’t mean that its OK to spit or hawk.. merely that they will do it anyway. Gross? Yes. Stoppable? Not so much.