I'm pretty sure the day the news of this "Swine Flu" hit my little town in Indiana, everyone was petrified. It went like this:
-"Oh my goodness, did you hear about that new Swine Flu?"
-"Yeah, it's expected to kill 1 in every 5 people!"
-"It's a global pandemic!"
-"It's the end of the world!"
-"Jesus is coming back!"
-"Everyone, let's excape to Canada!"
-"The Canadians have it too?! Oh no! We're trapped!!!"
...or something like that.
Only days later, I find myself, along with peers and IMers. talking jokingly about it. The other day, someone asked for a drink of my pop. I responded by saying, "You don't have Swine Flu, do you?". This is ironic because there have been no reported cases in Indiana, yet.
The reason I'm calling Swine Flu the new AIDS is that it is getting treated similarly to AIDS in the 70's (or whenever).
In the past week alone, I've seen phrases such as:
-"health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations" - OH GOD
-"Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu"- If only the world were more like Egypt.
-"Why only deaths in Mexico?" - cuz they're Mexican, duh?....there aren't deaths in Mexico, see?
-"US sees first swine flu death"- ohh snap, take that Mexico!
-"By Tuesday, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico was suspected in 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses, Mexican health officials said."- I knew it was worse than a cold!
-" In Mexico "Citizens are asked to avoid large crowds, refrain from kissing, and stay at least six feet from one another."- But sex is totally okay guys.
-In the U.S. "The government urged travelers to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico."- I put this one up because I saw a older lady getting traveller's checks at the bank on Monday for a vacation in Mexico...which means I can never go to my bank again... :(
You may think I'm putting these up to be cruel- and you'd be totally right. While Swine Flu is dangerous, not many of the people with it have died ( I know, 159 people is a lot, but only 7 are confirm and compared to the over 2,000 who have had it.....in Mexico) and the World Health Organization has not yet declared it a pandemic.
I think, the reason everyone is freaking out, is that the government, for the first time in a very long while, is actually doing something to prevent it BEFORE it becomes widespread. We should be congratulating them on their research and discovery of a vaccine, even if the vaccine which they found is pretty much useless. At least they're trying. Just because they give precautions, doesn't mean that if you don't follow them that you are going to get Swine Flu and die.
Remember SARS and "don't open your mail?" (I totally opened my mail everyday.)
Remember AIDS and "don't sit too close to someone with AIDS?" (crap....)
Remember Schizophrenia and "craziness is contagious?" (Probably not)
Remember Polio and small pox- oh wait, those ones were real.
I understand the fear of a global pandemic, especially in this age, with cars and planes that can take us to anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, but what I don't understand is why everyone is bringing this fear to a new level when even our new president (that you voted for, mind you) has decided it's not that bad.
Yes, he's closing down schools that have it. Chances are, it's not your local school.
Yes, he's working to find a vaccine. Wouldn't you?
I, myself, do try to keep up on the news related to Swine Flu, but I don't let in control my life. When looking at all of the precautions countries are taking, I can feel safe in knowing that the kid from my French class who went to Japan over Spring Break and contracted Swine Flu, is safely tucked away in Japan an dcannot give it to me right before my final.
You should be too.
Peace and Love,
Dani
P.S. If you didn't get it, this whole thing was written very sarcastically. The point was to show that people are freaking out over nothing. If you respond freaking out, chances are, you didn't get it and you're one of the people from the first section.
My mom just sent me this email
Don't Do this:
Peace and Love,
DaniLiz
I have received it in emails before. You know your a new mom when your first reaction is to cringe. If you think its cute, you have been around the block a time or two with little ones, and know that no amount of hand sanitizer in the world can accomplish the task of keeping kids germ free. Save your money.
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You realize that AIDS will never go away, but a flu will. More like the new SARS or Bird Flu. I don't think it will be a long term thing (at least I hope not).
Another difference is that, with the exception of the misinformation about how it is transmitted, this is being treated MUCH more seriously than AIDS ever was in the '80's. President Reagan was in office during the first eight years of the epidemic, and he NEVER ONCE mentioned it. Everyone was very "not our problem" about it. The only information that was out there about it was misinformation.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
You said:
"In Mexico "Citizens are asked to avoid large crowds, refrain from kissing, and stay at least six feet from one another."- But sex is totally okay guys." Which really cracked me up because that is some man that can have a sexual encounter at 6 ft away!
But then you said:
"I saw a older lady getting traveller's checks at the bank on Monday for a vacation in Mexico...which means I can never go to my bank again..."
Surely I will never get Swine Flu because I am too busy rolling on the floor hysterically laughing...Thanks Dani.Lix for keeping me safe!
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.~- Anais Nin
SARS was a disease that did kill quite a few people and had the potential to become pandemic. And at least as much was done about it as is being done now. Travel was treated much more seriously. And most of what is being done now like deploying our stockpile of Tamiflu is only possible because of the planning and stockpiling that got done as a result of SARS. There was NO stockpile of Tamiflu when Bush came to office and there was one when he left.
The don't open your mail thing was anthrax being distributed in powderized, weaponized form by a lone-wolf terrorist. I'm not sure what could have been done about that but again, there was no stockpile of the antibiotics for abthrax when Bush came to office and there was a stockpile when he left.
I think there is also a considerably refreshed and expanded stockpile of smallpox vaccine now too. Tommy Thompson was an excellent Secretary of Health.
Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that one.
I was 12 when that whole Anthraz thing happened, so it's sometimes hard for me to remember back to.
That's for clearing it up though. I'm sure there were people googling that shyt, confused as a dog with two tails.
Peace and Love,
DaniLiz
more about the masks that everyone is wearing...
He was saying how only god can save you if you have the strain that the vaccine and your immune system doesn't conquer
On one hand maybe I think he doesn't realize sometimes things are magnified to an extent that they don't need to be....In reality I am kind of scared too but I know where to draw the limit for the scare and what is viable to be scared but fear is kind of irrational
“You cannot wean away an addict from the drug. It is not possible for me to walk away from Ranjha. If it is our destiny to be together then who, other than God, can change it?”
she's a spaceman, no walker, dreamer...maybe
Egypt totally over reacted. So far there is no conformed link between swine flu and pigs. In other words pigs are not carriers of this flu and as far as we know it is only a human to human transmitted virus. So let us have a good laugh over the pointless slaughter of swine in Egypt. It is sad when people over react or react in the wrong way.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
And if you're seeing lines in my writing that you feel you need to read between, they aren't there. ~N. Ledger
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
Also, to put it in perspective, there a 91 cases nationally and one case of death.
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My instructor who was telling which classes I need for next semester said it was going to be a pandemic and the way to be safe...this amazing thing she told me can save the world.... in the strictest confidence
...I will share with you
... but tell nobody
.... This is really amazing stuff that no one has ever heard before...
make sure to wash your hands... Oh, and not to chew on the baskets at Wal Mart.
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.~- Anais Nin
....there goes my favorite past-time.
Peace and Love,
DaniLiz
True, it did start in pigs but currently being transmitted person to person. So killing the pigs is pointless.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
And if you're seeing lines in my writing that you feel you need to read between, they aren't there. ~N. Ledger
It's called the swine flu because one of the parts of the flu virus came from a pig and mutated into the human virus. So yeah, it has a link to swine. It's just like the bird flu.This strain is just H1N1, instead of H5N1.
And I have to say, the number of flu specimens we've gotten in the lab has grown enormously over the past few days.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
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omg this post was so freakin funny!! dang..no more wal-mart handels....but at least i can have sex :)~
I dont feel like writing long paragraphs today so
1) Someone in egypt has a major impalse problem
2) Swine flew kills about 0.5% of its victims wells Sars was closer too 10%
3) The media loves to take everything they can and run with it, people should be aware but not scared S**tless
4) Ageed not going to let it affect my life to much
- JaSOn
I agree that we probably are over-reacting, but we should be pre-cautious. I've said this in a number of blogs but my sister is asthmatic, my step dad is diabetic, and I work at camps for kids who are diabetic, asthmatic, have CF, and have cancer. These people are the most prone to the disease and I want to protect every single one of them. To me it doesn't matter, 1 or 1 million, either way that's person is important to someone and they deserve to know how to stay safe. Thank you to the media for the first time in my life.
They aren't more likely to get the disease than anyone else; they are in "at risk" groups because of diseases that weaken the immune system, and so they are more likely to have more severe reactions if they acquire the virus. Standard precautions, like hand washing and staying away from sick people, will work just as well to protect your loved ones as they will with people of optimal health. Standard precautions, such as hand washing and staying away from sick people, should be practiced daily anyway.
Yes, H1N1 is serious, but it's nothing to be paranoid about.
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