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Swine Flu Pandemic


RedScare

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Thought I'd start a thread on our latest threat to humanity, the Swine Flu.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682/

And, in the 'If It Weren't For Bad Luck..." department, the GOP demanded that Flu Pandemic preparations funding be stripped out of the Stimulus package last month.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/g...c_n_191732.html

First, Bobby Jindal mocks 'volcano monitoring' funding mere weeks before an Alaskan volcano erupts, and now this.

Edited by RedScare
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It appears as if The Chron's reader comments section on the story is disabled. I suspect it was just a long list of poorly spelled rants against Mexicans.

Is it a pandemic? Let's wait 28 days and see. :ph34r:

If Pandemic = global outbreak, sure.

If Pandemic = global outbreak with significant rate of fatalities, I think not.

Believe me, I am not one to shy away from an opportunity for panic, and I tried for a moment to panic over this one, but in the end, nope not panicking.

A lot of people are going to get the flu. Emergency rooms will be overcrowded (thanks to media overhype) and that could cause problems for people with serious emergencies. It'll be harder to get an appointment with your doctor. But will it kill the way the flu of 1917 (my grandfather lost his first wife and a child to this one), probably not. That flu was much more virulent, killing the healthy and the strong. It appears that those at risk with this one are the elderly and infirm as with any flu. The numbers of those will probably increase due to nobody having been vaccinated against this.

Being a staunch worrier, I consider myself an expert.

Signed,

Garden Variety Hypochondriac

(I have had rabies a number of times, only cureable by resumption of anti-depressant medication) :)

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It'll be harder to get an appointment with your doctor.

Hmm, my doctor's office called ME today to set up an appointment. Not for this global killer of mill...err...dozens, though. Just wants to chat about my cholesterol...and maybe to suggest limiting my bacon intake. :unsure:

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If Pandemic = global outbreak, sure.

If Pandemic = global outbreak with significant rate of fatalities, I think not.

Believe me, I am not one to shy away from an opportunity for panic, and I tried for a moment to panic over this one, but in the end, nope not panicking.

A lot of people are going to get the flu. Emergency rooms will be overcrowded (thanks to media overhype) and that could cause problems for people with serious emergencies. It'll be harder to get an appointment with your doctor. But will it kill the way the flu of 1917 (my grandfather lost his first wife and a child to this one), probably not. That flu was much more virulent, killing the healthy and the strong. It appears that those at risk with this one are the elderly and infirm as with any flu. The numbers of those will probably increase due to nobody having been vaccinated against this.

Being a staunch worrier, I consider myself an expert.

Signed,

Garden Variety Hypochondriac

(I have had rabies a number of times, only cureable by resumption of anti-depressant medication) :)

I got vaccinated for the swine flu back in 1976 when I was in college. The vaccination was free at the student clinic, so a bunch of us went and got knocked up. It helped that we were told about this cute nurse at the clinic who was administering the shots. It hurt like hell too!

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Thought I'd start a thread on our latest threat to humanity, the Swine Flu.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682/

And, in the 'If It Weren't For Bad Luck..." department, the GOP demanded that Flu Pandemic preparations funding be stripped out of the Stimulus package last month.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/g...c_n_191732.html

First, Bobby Jindal mocks 'volcano monitoring' funding mere weeks before an Alaskan volcano erupts, and now this.

And now it'll be funded anyway, whereas if part of the stimulus and absent the "pandemic" it would have been "just in case" waste. As for the volcano, please explain what monitoring that they are not currently doing on the Alaskan volcano because of stimulus bill cuts.

Hmm, my doctor's office called ME today to set up an appointment. Not for this global killer of mill...err...dozens, though. Just wants to chat about my cholesterol...and maybe to suggest limiting my bacon intake. :unsure:

You need a new doctor! Them's fightin words.

Edited by 20thStDad
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CNN said it was a brand new disease, while Fox said there was an outbreak in 1976...

I haven't been latched to the TV in the full swing of swine flu fever, but I'd guess swine flu's been around, but this is a new strain that jumps from human to human much more easily than it has been able to previously.

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I haven't been latched to the TV in the full swing of swine flu fever, but I'd guess swine flu's been around, but this is a new strain that jumps from human to human much more easily than it has been able to previously.

Correct. Additionally, what has them even more concerned is that in Mexico, it has been killing young, otherwise healthy people, as opposed to the old and the very young, as these things usually do.

Luckily, Governor Perry had not yet followed through on his threat to secede from the Union, allowing him to ask the federal government to send 850,000 doses of flu medication from its national stockpile.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry asked that 850,000 more courses of antiviral medication be placed in Texas as a precaution. The number is 25 percent of the CDC's Texas allotment from the strategic national stockpile. Texas already has 840,000 courses of antiviral medication on hand following a purchase authorized by the Legislature and Perry in 2007.

"While the confirmed cases of swine flu in the U.S. have been mild, it is prudent that we take the necessary precautions in Texas to protect our citizens," Perry said in announcing his request. "We will continue to work with our local, state and federal health officials to ensure public safety is protected."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/6393889.html

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President Ford made an announcement concerning Swine Flu back in the 70's.

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html

CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT:

I personally think it is all a ruse. A way to make more people believe that we desperately need to close the border to Mexico, and put more security on it. Although it is a REAL disease, it is being blown out of proportion. Officials closed the whole Shertz ISD down for a week because of Swine Flu, Shertz is a suburb of San Antonio, about as far as Katy is from H-town.

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Correct. Additionally, what has them even more concerned is that in Mexico, it has been killing young, otherwise healthy people, as opposed to the old and the very young, as these things usually do.

Luckily, Governor Perry had not yet followed through on his threat to secede from the Union, allowing him to ask the federal government to send 850,000 doses of flu medication from its national stockpile.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/6393889.html

LOL. Should we ask anyone who wants to receive the medication what their position on taxation is?

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President Ford made an announcement concerning Swine Flu back in the 70's.

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html

CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT:

I personally think it is all a ruse. A way to make more people believe that we desperately need to close the border to Mexico, and put more security on it. Although it is a REAL disease, it is being blown out of proportion. Officials closed the whole Shertz ISD down for a week because of Swine Flu, Shertz is a suburb of San Antonio, about as far as Katy is from H-town.

Sorry, we've changed administrations.

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I think this news is extremely over blown. Watching cnbc just now and they have a "Breaking News" reporter on location in front of the Ernst & Young NY headquarters telling us that one employee may or may not have the swine flu and has been out since last Thursday.

One employee.

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LOL. Should we ask anyone who wants to receive the medication what their position on taxation is?

What does taxation have to do with it?

I'm pretty sure that most of the people you're sneering at have various opinions on taxation but would agree that disease control and public health are legitimate governmental responsibilities.

Out of control federal entitlement spending and unfunded mandates to state governments for even more of the same, probably not so much.

It would be nice if the people who make fun of the tea party movement - and politicians like Rick Perry and Mark Sanford - would actually try and understand it rather than make strained jokes about at all being about income taxes.

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What does taxation have to do with it?

I'm pretty sure that most of the people you're sneering at have various opinions on taxation but would agree that disease control and public health are legitimate governmental responsibilities.

Out of control federal entitlement spending and unfunded mandates to state governments for even more of the same, probably not so much.

It would be nice if the people who make fun of the tea party movement - and politicians like Rick Perry and Mark Sanford - would actually try and understand it rather than make strained jokes about at all being about income taxes.

Not sure where you get "sneering" from my post, but my point is that responding to a public health crisis, and distributing this kind of medication is one of the things our tax dollars pay for. So every time people whine about taxes, they conveniently forget all the services they expect from their government. Like this one.

If anyone was sneering, it was Rick Perry, sneering at our own country & federal government. Not me.

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Not sure where you get "sneering" from my post, but my point is that responding to a public health crisis, and distributing this kind of medication is one of the things our tax dollars pay for. So every time people whine about taxes, they conveniently forget all the services they expect from their government. Like this one.

If anyone was sneering, it was Rick Perry, sneering at our own country & federal government. Not me.

Nonetheless, it's clear from both of your posts that you really need to learn more about what Rick Perry and the others are upset about.

You don't seem to get it all because it's not taxes or federal health services, nor is it "our own country and federal government."

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Nonetheless, it's clear from both of your posts that you really need to learn more about what Rick Perry and the others are upset about.

You don't seem to get it all because it's not taxes or federal health services, nor is it "our own country and federal government."

There didn't seem to be a single, unified viewpoint among the tax protesters. Your own view may be clear to you, but I don't think everyone out there at tea parties was as clear on it as you may be.

Anyway, I never even mentioned tea parties in my original comment. I was talking, in general, about people who complain about taxes. People don't want to pay them, but expect services.

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I was talking, in general, about people who complain about taxes. People don't want to pay them, but expect services.

I really don't think that it is that simple. Opinions as to what the optimal level of government spending should be (or as I've often brought up in the past, whether spending of various sorts should be the responsibility of the federal, state, or local levels) vary widely. However the debate does not occur at the extremes but along a spectrum. The positions that spending is excessive or inadequate are not the same as positions that government spending should represent all or nothing out of the economy.

Seriously, are you trying to make a jab at anarchists (in which case, why bother) or are you trying to make fun of fiscal conservatives?

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I really don't think that it is that simple. Opinions as to what the optimal level of government spending should be (or as I've often brought up in the past, whether spending of various sorts should be the responsibility of the federal, state, or local levels) vary widely. However the debate does not occur at the extremes but along a spectrum. The positions that spending is excessive or inadequate are not the same as positions that government spending should represent all or nothing out of the economy.

Seriously, are you trying to make a jab at anarchists (in which case, why bother) or are you trying to make fun of fiscal conservatives?

Don't get your knickers in a knot. I'm making a jab at the stupid. Those who complain, unthinkingly, about taxes, but still expect services. I think I've explained that three times now.

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It's as plausible as Pat Gray's theory that this is a government conspiracy to limit public gatherings. Yep, it's an Obama plot to stop the Tea Parties.

But hot tea will make you feel better if you have the flu. Conservative conspiracy to expand tea parties!!

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But hot tea will make you feel better if you have the flu. Conservative conspiracy to expand tea parties!!

No just the opposite. People will be drinking the tea instead of tossing them around at the tea parties. Maybe they can have a coffee clache instead. But to get serious and back on topic. Will hot tea relieve the pain if you're a re-animated zombie craving brains?

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