As one who loathes useless worry, I am in the middle on this.
There is a lot to be concerned about, as Dcap points out, public health policy sucks in this country.
2 1/2 years ago, I represented my then-employer at a NYC sponsored public health meeting about bird flu. What is scary is how quickly things can spread in a big city like NYC.
Which by no means gets those of us in other places off the hook.
That said, as Fixer points out, there is a media angle. While I hate sounding paranoid, there are also strange opportunities for power grabs in a potential crisis like this.
I am grateful that Obama is in office if nothing else. He is not perfect, but I must say if Bush were in charge, my answer would be very different.
I got a tamiflu injection in the early part of this winter. I don't know how long the protection lasts.
I'm not concerned enough to go out and buy masks and such - I'm essentially a hermit both at work and at home, so I have limited contact with my fellow humanoids. I did, however, grab one of the disinfectant wipes on my way out of the grocery store and wiped my hands and the cart handle, as I'd used the communal "signing stick" on the card-swipe at the checkout.
I have read that the flu seems to be more severe in Mexico than the cases here in the US. Don't know why.
faced with looming possibilities of right wing armed extremists starting civil war, global climate crisis causing widespread drought and famine-- and rising heat waves, or swine flu---not very. we have a finite stay here on the planet and frankly, i think they have blown this way out of proportion. i also think the whole thing was indeed engineered by someone. but i'll save that for my place :) this is just another shot in the arsenal of fear mongering.
this morning on npr, some health official pointed out that, while we know the number of hospitalized cases and we know the number of deaths, we DON'T know how many people have actually come down with it in Mexico.
without that number, the other two are meaningless. if a huge number have gotten sick, 50 deaths aren't all that serious except to their loved ones. if 350 people caught it and 50 died, we're in a world of trouble.
Like sewmouse, I'm a hermit. I rarely leave home and hardly ever go out of my community. so, I feel pretty safe. acourse, OTHER people leave my park, so there's that.
and I'm with, probably, most people here--I'm glad Bush isn't around any more. at best he'd be at some birthday party, at worst, Cheney would declare martial law and he would go along.
I'm concerned about my level of patience with people who keep accusing me of having swine flu even though I have been to the doctor and know that I have a sinus infection.
I guess I'm about where Fran is. And I agree with Dcap. I'm concerned about access to medical care not only in this country, but around the world. This recent health crisis just shows that what happens in poor countries does not stay in poor countries, so Republicans who want to cut foreign aid better think about that.
we were talking about crisis overload this am at chez bums.
we did spend 3 hours in an urgent care waiting room yesterday so my mom could get xrayed to see if she has a broken rib. (no news yet) it was unsettling to be sitting with maybe 40 people (tho some were just family of a person needing attention) who coughed and sniffled. some people wore masks. many took advantage, repeatedly, of the hand sanitizer.
not at all. I remember the bird flu scare of ought three, and I didn't fall for it then. Total cases in that 'pandemic': 8,400 Eight Thousand Four Hundred, or Eighty Four Hundred and 114 deaths in 9 years. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/siegel I am much more frightened of HIV/AIDS, Herpes, HPV and cancer, than I am of the Swine flu.
I don't feel comfortable making light of the threat of deadly pandemic or of any government's cautionary preparation.
The media blows this, like everything else, out of all proportion and generally misses all important points, but there is nothing kind or gentle about nature. A virus is opportunistic, and will seize any chance to survive and multiply.
It is only a matter of time before one will exploit a critical opening and we will have real trouble on our hands. We can see from this instance the speed with which an infection can spread undetected in the era of international travel, and the near impossibility of stopping it once it begins.
I am hopeful that this strain of Swine Flu will prove to be relatively benign but aware that we are always about one mutation away from one that is not.
50 sick people out of 300 million is not a health crisis. There should be some way for the government to act with the proper levels of intelligence and caution rather than jumping straight to PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY status. Seems like a lot of overblown fear-mongering to me.
More concerned about my daughters who live in the Portland area and who have some nagging health problems than I am about me and Mrs. Snave... we live in a small, fairly isolated town. But somewhat concerned about it, enough that I don't want to catch it.
PoP, come take a look at our new arrival! His name is Phineas. He is ten weeks old and comes from the SW Washington Humane Society.
I'm kinda concerned. There's so many things out there that can kill you, this is just one more. The only thing that I think about with this is that our FDA standards have sunk so much in the past 8 years, I don't know if that's opened the floodgates to possibilities for pandemics or not. I'm just going to make sure everything I eat is well-done from now on.
19 Comments:
pretty concerned --- i think public health pooicy in this country is a second thought and not great...
too busy fighting useless wars for ego and oil to think about how to make a healthier society.
Were I in Mexico I'd be worried. I think, for right now, this is just the next big catastrophe the American media can milk for all it's worth.
As one who loathes useless worry, I am in the middle on this.
There is a lot to be concerned about, as Dcap points out, public health policy sucks in this country.
2 1/2 years ago, I represented my then-employer at a NYC sponsored public health meeting about bird flu. What is scary is how quickly things can spread in a big city like NYC.
Which by no means gets those of us in other places off the hook.
That said, as Fixer points out, there is a media angle. While I hate sounding paranoid, there are also strange opportunities for power grabs in a potential crisis like this.
I am grateful that Obama is in office if nothing else. He is not perfect, but I must say if Bush were in charge, my answer would be very different.
I got a tamiflu injection in the early part of this winter. I don't know how long the protection lasts.
I'm not concerned enough to go out and buy masks and such - I'm essentially a hermit both at work and at home, so I have limited contact with my fellow humanoids. I did, however, grab one of the disinfectant wipes on my way out of the grocery store and wiped my hands and the cart handle, as I'd used the communal "signing stick" on the card-swipe at the checkout.
I have read that the flu seems to be more severe in Mexico than the cases here in the US. Don't know why.
faced with looming possibilities of right wing armed extremists starting civil war, global climate crisis causing widespread drought and famine-- and rising heat waves, or swine flu---not very. we have a finite stay here on the planet and frankly, i think they have blown this way out of proportion. i also think the whole thing was indeed engineered by someone. but i'll save that for my place :) this is just another shot in the arsenal of fear mongering.
Give me bacon or give me death!
Meh. 3 confirmed cases here in Dallas. One school closed for a week as they sanitize it.
Mostly what Fixer said re: the media.
I am watching and reading about it carefully. I wash my hands compulsively and I don't go out publicly a lot, I like my house.
Not worried, yet, just holding onto a wait and see attitude.
I agree with FranIam. If Bush/Cheney were still in office this would have been a perfect opportunity to declare martial law.
I just wonder what sort of 'land mines' they left behind that we may discover in the process of managing this situation should it become more serious.
They probably had Halliburton manufacturing the supply of Tamiflu.
this morning on npr, some health official pointed out that, while we know the number of hospitalized cases and we know the number of deaths, we DON'T know how many people have actually come down with it in Mexico.
without that number, the other two are meaningless. if a huge number have gotten sick, 50 deaths aren't all that serious except to their loved ones.
if 350 people caught it and 50 died, we're in a world of trouble.
Like sewmouse, I'm a hermit. I rarely leave home and hardly ever go out of my community. so, I feel pretty safe. acourse, OTHER people leave my park, so there's that.
and I'm with, probably, most people here--I'm glad Bush isn't around any more. at best he'd be at some birthday party, at worst, Cheney would declare martial law and he would go along.
I'm concerned about my level of patience with people who keep accusing me of having swine flu even though I have been to the doctor and know that I have a sinus infection.
I guess I'm about where Fran is. And I agree with Dcap. I'm concerned about access to medical care not only in this country, but around the world. This recent health crisis just shows that what happens in poor countries does not stay in poor countries, so Republicans who want to cut foreign aid better think about that.
For myself - not very. But this could be devastating to some populations and countries.
Yet another test for the Obama administration..
we were talking about crisis overload this am at chez bums.
we did spend 3 hours in an urgent care waiting room yesterday so my mom could get xrayed to see if she has a broken rib. (no news yet) it was unsettling to be sitting with maybe 40 people (tho some were just family of a person needing attention) who coughed and sniffled. some people wore masks. many took advantage, repeatedly, of the hand sanitizer.
no symptoms yet. we are alert, but not alarmed.
not at all. I remember the bird flu scare of ought three, and I didn't fall for it then. Total cases in that 'pandemic':
8,400 Eight Thousand Four Hundred, or Eighty Four Hundred and 114 deaths in 9 years. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/siegel
I am much more frightened of HIV/AIDS, Herpes, HPV and cancer, than I am of the Swine flu.
I don't feel comfortable making light of the threat of deadly pandemic or of any government's cautionary preparation.
The media blows this, like everything else, out of all proportion and generally misses all important points, but there is nothing kind or gentle about nature. A virus is opportunistic, and will seize any chance to survive and multiply.
It is only a matter of time before one will exploit a critical opening and we will have real trouble on our hands. We can see from this instance the speed with which an infection can spread undetected in the era of international travel, and the near impossibility of stopping it once it begins.
I am hopeful that this strain of Swine Flu will prove to be relatively benign but aware that we are always about one mutation away from one that is not.
50 sick people out of 300 million is not a health crisis. There should be some way for the government to act with the proper levels of intelligence and caution rather than jumping straight to PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY status. Seems like a lot of overblown fear-mongering to me.
I'm prepared to stay home from work just to be safe.
More concerned about my daughters who live in the Portland area and who have some nagging health problems than I am about me and Mrs. Snave... we live in a small, fairly isolated town. But somewhat concerned about it, enough that I don't want to catch it.
PoP, come take a look at our new arrival! His name is Phineas. He is ten weeks old and comes from the SW Washington Humane Society.
I'm kinda concerned. There's so many things out there that can kill you, this is just one more. The only thing that I think about with this is that our FDA standards have sunk so much in the past 8 years, I don't know if that's opened the floodgates to possibilities for pandemics or not. I'm just going to make sure everything I eat is well-done from now on.
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