So it's swine flu now...

[backhoeboogie]

With all due respect sir, there are comfirmed cases in my proximity. People I work with have to find alternative day care or stay home. There are people from Fort Worth and Cleburne both. In the Fort Worth case, one person I work with has a son in some classes with the infected student. Hundreds have now been exposed to this virus during the incubation period at Fort Worth schools. I applaud Fort Worth School District for taking the actions they took. Children's lives are not worth taking a chance on.

If you google the flu scenario of 1918, you may become enlightened to what happens when a new strain appears, such as this one.

We are at a level 5.

I am already indirectly affected with peers having to miss work. Also there is the potential that I have been exposed through co-workers that may affect my grandchildren.

Why should I take chances? All I want is the information available to continue taking precautions. My three grandchildren are all less than 3 years old and they are constantly putting their fingers in their mouths etc.

I have not put on a mask nor have I bought one. I just want to keep up with where it has spread to.

 

[grannysoo]

Here's the Google swine flu map.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 488281&z=5

Something stinks with this entire ordeal...

 

[Jim62]

That do look a little bit suspicious, don't it ?

 

[Tommy Ruyle]

All I'm saying is put it in perspective. Consider this...

(These are the newest figures I could find.)

Deaths from Auto Crashes - 42,443 per year = 3,536 per month = 816 per week = 116 per day = 4 per hour (2001)

Killed by the common flu - at least 20,000 per year = 1667 per month = 55 per day = over 2 per hour (2006)

Killed by murder - 16,929 = 1411 per month = 46 per day = almost 2 per hour (2007)

Deaths by lighting - 47 per year (2006)

I haven't heard anyone say that no one should get near a car...

 

[BeefmasterB]

One death in Houston already from the Swine Flu. 4 schools have just announced temporary closings and various public gatherings have also been cancelled. It's moving fast.

 

[Jalopy]

The hype isn't about what has happened the 250 deaths world wide so much as what could happen. If the swine flu is uncontrolled and would have a .5% mortality rate in the US alone that would be approximately 1.5 million people and this could be in as little as 6 months. That is about 8333 deaths per day. I don't think with the advances we have in medicine in the last 90 years that we will have the same type pandemic of 1918. However it will not hurt to be cautious. I hope that in six or eight months we can all look back and amuse ourselves over so much tadoo about nothing.

 

[Lammie]

I agree that we are knee jerking on this. What happens when the schools in Fort Worth start again when we reach some sort of apex in this thing? Close again? If you have twenty percent of your students and staff out, then close. Heck, if you have ten percent. But not 4 out of 80,000. And closing Mayfest was just stupid. I hope all those vendors get their money back.

At least if they close Mayfest it might not storm this weekend...

 

[backhoeboogie]

All I'm saying is put it in perspective. Consider this...

(These are the newest figures I could find.)

Deaths from Auto Crashes - 42,443 per year = 3,536 per month = 816 per week = 116 per day = 4 per hour (2001)

Killed by the common flu - at least 20,000 per year = 1667 per month = 55 per day = over 2 per hour (2006)

Killed by murder - 16,929 = 1411 per month = 46 per day = almost 2 per hour (2007)

Deaths by lighting - 47 per year (2006)

I haven't heard anyone say that no one should get near a car...

Check flu virus H1N1 in 1918 and plug that in to this equation. That was the last time this went around.

 

[Lammie]

The 1918 flu was a terrible thing, but think about it. Back then, we had large immigrant populations crammed in slums in the large cities, public health pretty much didn't exist, there was no running water in a lot of places, harder to keep clean, there were no anti-biotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can crop up with the flu, there was little understanding about transmission, nutrition wasn't as good for a lot of folks. What you had was a tender box situation back then that allowed the flu to spread unchecked. And I know that we have large immigrant populations in some places now, like Texas, but at least we all have access to soap and water. Wash your hands often!

I think, hope, that this is totally overblown.

I worry more about ecomonic implications than anything, that and political instability in some countries that can be imflamed by an epidemic.

That said, it's smart to take precautions. I just think that we are overreacting before it is called for. And like I said in another thread, all these kids out of school are just going to the malls and the movies anyway and those places are much less clean than the schools. We are disinfecting every day, all desks, doors, restrooms, busses and tables. You can't tell me that the malls are doing this.

 

[john250]

That said, it's smart to take precautions. I just think that we are overreacting before it is called for.

You are so right. I prefer to overreact later.

 

[Lammie]

That said, it's smart to take precautions. I just think that we are overreacting before it is called for.

You are so right. I prefer to overreact later.

Smart a$$.