Swine Flu

[Scarfman]

Swine Flu is so much bullshit. I've now had 2 unrelated GPs tell me that last year's flu was significantly more deadly, it just didn't have a catchy name.

My whole family almost definitely had it a couple of weeks ago. The more people that get exposed to it the better. You can pick up immunity even if you don't get sick.

 

[Jatz]

Scarfman, I hope you a right however it does seem to be more significant over here in the UK and people have stopped joking about it. I think Australia is a month or so behind with this flu spreading!

My wife is a GP and let me tell you it isn't bullshit. Everyone in the UK is getting vaccinated in a couple of weeks and the schools closing is pretty definite at this point when the summer holidays finish. They are expecting a 2.5% mortality rate from is which is significantly worse that 'last years flu'. A call centre just around the corner from me has been closed and they are expecting a number of other large organisations to have to go into a 'quarantine' situation so it has massive financial implications as well.

Obviously for people that are healthy adults and not minors or elderly you can get through it with a course but its no normal flu and it hasn't been classed as a pandemic by the CDC for a laugh.

Hopefully it won't start to affect Aus as it is starting to affect things here but my guess is it will!

 

[cyclopath]

Scarfy, I thought so too, but it is impacting significantly on the health system. Many of the larger hospitals have their ICUs full of patients with it. The difficult part is how much of an individual's problem is related to it alone - most have several other significant medical problems. Nonetheless, these full ICUs are meaning a lot of major surgery is being deferred as patients can't go there post-op.
We have not reached the "hump" here yet.

 

[Pfitzy]

I agree with the scarf - the pissing and moaning about increased absenteeism at schools and work places is misplaced: the fact is whenever someone gets sick they should stay the fuck away from such places so they avoid infecting people. This year, for a change, and because people have been told swine flu is deadly, they're paying attention. Previously they'd go into work like idiots and make other people sick, and we all suffer.

 

[Scarfman]

Interesting points of view. Cyclo, what's your opinion about the relative deadliness of this flu compared to previous versions?

Jatz claims a 2.5% mortality rate which sounds pretty bad, I suppose.

 

[OZGOD]

Well here in Boston it was a big deal for about 2 weeks, the news media couldn't stop talking about it as we got out of our winter season, but now it's pretty much a non event. The mortality rate is lower than that of normal influenza. Barrier nursing techniques are much better these days than when the spanish flu was around, particularly in Western countries. Most of the victims here in the US have died through complications from pre-existing conditions.

If swine flu managed to vector hrough a developing country's population (say India or countries in Africa) then that would be a different story.

 

[OZGOD]

Obviously for people that are healthy adults and not minors or elderly you can get through it with a course but its no normal flu and it hasn't been classed as a pandemic by the CDC for a laugh.

To be honest though Jatz, any pathogen that can be transmitted via aerosol (like most influenza viruses) can easily become a pandemic with the level of air travel we have these days. A virus can come out of the rain forest in Zaire, and as long as it can travel through the air, can easily get to anywhere on the planet in the span of a few days. A pandemic is basically a pathogen that has infected multiple populations in multiple areas.

The good thing is that this swine flu (there was a lot of press here in the US a few months ago but it's died down now) has a much lower mortality rate than even normal influenza, and a majority of fatalities in the US and Mexico had pre-existing conditions which exacerbated the effect of the illness on them. The mortality rate for swine flu here in the US is 1 in a thousand, which is 0.1%. If the mortality rate in the UK is 2.5% there's some serious issues with your hospital facilities mate.A 2.5% mortality rate means swine flu is killing more people than malaria or traffic accidents or hypertension. :nta:

IMO HIV is a much bigger pandemic, one that has been going on for over 20 years now. AIDS is a slow burn though and is not very infectious as a plague vector, which is why it doesn't get as much press (even though it has the potential to seriously erode the population of the human race over the next 50 years).

That said, it was always expected that the number of cases would increase in OZ, NZ and other SH countries as you're getting into your winter as we were exiting ours here in the NH. The UK is strange though - it's the height of summer so them getting so many influenza cases is odd to say the least.

We had a couple of people at work here in Boston come down with swine flu back in March - they got sent home for a few days to make sure they didn't infect anyone and they recovered after a number of days. I'm not trying to minimise the possible impact of this illness, but basically, bring some hand sanitiser with you at all times, stay away from people who are sneezing/coughing, avoid touching things like shopping carts, toilet handles etc with your bare hands, wear a surgical mask to work and you should be right

 

[PaarlBok]

We have schools closing because of this Swine Flu. Some of us want to rather stay with our Bok flu.

 

[Gagger]

I'm with Scarfie's original comment, before he got beat down by Jatz's wife.

This is a great example of what a small amount of misinformation (hundreds dying in Mexico turned out to be their own fucacta death recordings - no one's really sure whether they died of flu or bad enchiladas) and disaster hungry 24hr TV media organisations.

I was responsible for the Global Launch of Relenza (GSKs flu antiviral) at the end of last century (makes me sound like Lee). Back then you couldn't get anyone to give a shit about a pandemic. It took the media going apeshit about Avian flu to get anyone (governments) to buy the stuff.

While even the experts still know relatively little about the flu virus, a rule of thumb is that the more contagious a flu strain is, the less virulent (likely to kill you) it is. It's natural selection - if you kill the host you're living off, the less likely you are to be able to spread. It's the basis of all good Zombie movies.

From what I've seen and read, it's not this current strain of Flu that experts are worried about, it's what would happen if this contagious & mild Swine flu reassorted (fucked and had cross bred sprogs) with a virulent form. Which may never happen, or if it did, not be very successful.

What fucks me off though was the UK governments race to spruik as much of my tax pounds as possible on any panic ridden sniffly whinger who wants a dose of expensive anti-virals just to save their sinking fucking electoral skins. Of course it all goes into the roundings with what they hosed against the wall with the bank fiasco.

A good dose of unbranded flu usually kills around 2% or even more. It clears out nursing homes like a turd in a pool. But you don't hear about those deaths, because there aren't coiffured hacks chasing the story.

end of rant

 

[Lindommer]

The mortality rate for swine flu here in the US is 1 in a thousand, which is 0.1%.

Only 1 in a thousand! That's pathetic OZGOD. There are far too many useless Septics clogging up the world (Dubya et al), can't you do better than that? Here's your chance to do a massive good turn for humanity: rid us of a few million Septics we'd be better off without. :'( : :fishing

Talk about sending a boy on a man's errand.

 

[Pfitzy]

It's the basis of all good Zombie movies.

And can I recommend two good books by Max Brooks (son of the legendary Mel):

Zombie Survival Guide
and
World War Z

 

[Dismal Pillock]

FFS CHINA how about regulating your food markets so bats and snakes arent in open air cages RIGHT THE FUCK NEXT TO steaks and fried chicken. Operation World Deth Virus is now in full effect all because one of you mongrel dickheads wanted some bat soup cos yer grandad read a fable that it once gave some Ming wanker a half a fucken stiffy. HASHTAG NOT RACIST JUST SORT IT FFS

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Chinese Chefs Start Hurriedly Digging For Underground Bat Cave.​

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–Wuhan Times–​

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Chinese chefs have started hurriedly digging for an underground bat cave in the hope of finding more bats so they can make some more delicious goddamn motherfucking bat soup.​

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“Fuck!, fuck!, I can hear the delicious little evil wankers squeaking under there! Dig faster you dickheads, I am so fucking hungry right now!”​

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The Holy Grail of food according to your average Chinese gourmand.​

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“I can hardly wait to drizzle my bat soup with a liberal dousing of live snake sperm” said one excited Wuhan local, his face covered by a surgical mask due to a slight flu scare on the outskirts of town that he’d heard about just recently.​

 

[cyclopath]

FFS CHINA how about regulating your food markets so bats and snakes arent in open air cages RIGHT THE FUCK NEXT TO steaks and fried chicken. Operation World Deth Virus is now in full effect all because one of you mongrel dickheads wanted some bat soup cos yer grandad read a fable that it once gave some Ming wanker a half a fucken stiffy. HASHTAG NOT RACIST JUST SORT IT FFS

Do the grot merchants ever mistakenly try rooting the steaks and fried chicken? Asking for a friend.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Do the grot merchants ever mistakenly try rooting the steaks and fried chicken? Asking for a friend.

No but there's grot mags for it. Deep niche. Deep web. Deep menu. Deep meat. Deep sub-sub deep sub subway genre.

 

[cyclopath]

No but there's grot mags for it. Deep niche. Deep web. Deep menu. Deep meat. Deep sub-sub deep sub subway genre.

Foot-long?

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Foot-long?

Centrefolds are to scale.

 

[Tex]

I've gone and done meself a mischief and come down with a severe case of the Coronavirus

 

[Dismal Pillock]

I've gone and done meself a mischief and come down with a severe case of the Coronavirus

#telegraphed_gif

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Poor Camp Leader. She's gone into fullblown batsoup-virus panic mode. Stocked up on all manner of palliative snake-oil horseshit from Amazon. Masks, hazmat suits, stupid "anti-virus" spray, etc, etc. I hadn't the heart to tell her I'd just got back from walking the length and breadth of the main Chinatown mall 3 times and back, cheerfully taking in dirty great gulps of air, as well as intermittently welcoming the throngs of Chinese nationals as they spilled off their tour buses.