Yeah I have a bunch of friends who I grew up with in NYC who have first hand experience with it. One of my buddies sisters got it at a sports awards dinner. She was just hospitalized for a short time and released after that and made a full recovery. The only real problem I see it poses is with those who have weakened immune systems and/or those who tend to fall ill a lot.

 

Like the regular flu I hear its bad for the really young and really old. Don't believe the hype!

Hippie Chick

 

I could be wrong, but I thought the whole ordeal with H1N1 was that it was killing young people- the working class. No offense, but as my grandpa said, "it should be the elderly who will be using up government funds who you want to die.." (quoted from a 79 year old realist).

But I agree, it's only a matter of time until something huge happens. We're overdue and overpopulated. Nature has a way of slimming down populations. It's basic survival of the fittest. We've gotten away with it for too long, and whether you think it's a good or bad thing I'll leave as to your opinion.

 

Hopefully you are right. However the 1918 Pandemic started out with a lethality similar to the seasonal flu then a deadly strain appeared later in the year. The 1918 Strain and the 2009 Strain are extremely similar in their makeup and how they effect the body. Like many pandemics it basically a race between developing herd immunity in the general population before a deadly strain arises.

Read up on the 1918 Pandemic before you dismiss this threat outright. This is the fastest spreading virus in history. Even if it never becomes deadlier, its economic impact is going to be high just from people missing work. Worst case scenario is someone gets infected with H5N1 and H1N1 at the same time, then the two create a new virus that kills billions.

 

SARS was a real threat and it was work that stopped it spreading in the west. Just one person hopping into a plane and lands in Canada and suddenly they have a brand new disease. They didn't lean back and watch that one, everyone was in fighting it. Should they just done nothing, the outcome might have been much different. I think it's rather silly to say it was a minor thing, when what made it minor was hard work.

 

There are issues beyond individual health impacts that make this a thing to prepare for as it is, with the seemingly low death rate and complication rate.

One of those issues being the sheer number of people who may require hospitalization for swine flu during flu season-- perhaps increasing the pressure on hospitals two-fold or more. Even if it stays as "mild" as regular flu, there will be deaths and hospitalizations ongoing.

Also, concerns about mutations and deadlier "waves" are not without good cause. These are more speculative concerns, but valid nonetheless.

Don't worry, but be prepared. That's what this is about.

 

I agree with sara, there is good sense in keeping an eye on this, but dont panic.

 

I have a buddy who is a doctor. A GP. A country boy, farm kid, conservative.
I hung out with him a couple of weeks ago. We talked about a bunch of stuff.
Talked about socialized medicine and how he will farm instead of doctor if BO gets his way.
He told me how he got an invertor to run things in his house when they were without power. He talked about his 50 BMG. Get the idea of what kind of guy we are talking about?

I asked "how worried should I be about swine flu?" Without even a fraction of a second hesitation he replied "not one damn bit!"

McLovin

 

A couple of points when getting advice from doctors--from their perspective, they are primarily concerned about the patient. And if you get the swine flu, odds are good that everything will turn out ok. That's why most are not concerned. And it's a point well taken.

But keep in mind that most doctors today have never even seen a world wide pandemic. The last major influenza pandemic was in 1969. And even that one was a baby compared to 1918. The analogy is asking a stateside soldier about his opinion of a war that hasn't been fought yet.

 

Perhaps too many people have been sold on the "media hype accusations".

While this maybe true in some cases, it has convinced a lot of the public that they don't need to be carefull.

In the blame game, with the various authorities and media accusations, the biggest player in this game is the public apathy.

One infected person has recovered, who in turn infected other people, some in high risk groups, total strangers, for some it has been lethal.

There is no excuse in this day and age, we have the research, information and public awareness to improve the daily hygiene requirements to prevent infection and infecting others.

And yet, because the media and the authorities says it is only a mild virus, low death rate and yarda, yarda, we toss all this out the window and say so what, who cares.

Despite theories and conspiracies, we are now in a global situation where this "mild virus" is slowly killing more people, the full global impact has yet to be seen with the northern winters, and now we are seeing fast tracked vaccines for a "mild virus" which in itself has a lot of safety issues, possibly worse than the disease.

But hey, it is only a mild virus.

Don't worry about it, you infect someone else that could be lethal to them, not your problem, it didn't happen to you.

 

It's not the flu itself we are worried about. It's the vaccines which will contain live viruses.

 

i dont think its a threat just scaring the sheeple

 

CDC

The CDC either needs the power to back their guidelines or they need to be confined to tracking trends. I don't know which. We all know the ones who will get vaccines are the ones who line up in the malls and drugstores with cash in hand, not the young and the old.
Guidelines with no authority is just keeping things agitated.

 

I agree with you Lok.

All the hype around "swine flu" reminds me of Y2K.

 

Excellent German interview with epidemiologist about swine flu hype.

Advice: Best prevention is WASH YOUR HANDS!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,637119,00.html

 

Advice: Best prevention is WASH YOUR HANDS!

Hey where have I heard that before... OH! That's what they tell people to do with the regular flu!

Another reason to keep a few weeks' food at your house: If you get really sick, you will need to be able to provide for yourself while under self-quarantine, or if you are too sick to venture out.

I have a really tough immune system; I almost never get sick from seasonal bugs and if I do I recover fast. I don't take flu vaccines either. But, I remember when I caught a highly contagious stomach flu while in college; the kind that builds up and hits you like a ton of bricks within 24 hours. I had to drive two of my friends to the hospital because they couldn't keep water down; they had to rehydrate through IV's. The next day I felt funny; the morning after that I woke up vomiting so much that I almost passed out. The nasty fever didn't help either. It took me an hour to wobble a block's distance to the health center on campus. If they weren't open or available, I would have had to call an ambulance.

Flu can really be a pandora's box. Sometimes you can get over it fast; other times it will bring you to your knees.

Do this in early to mid autumn: Grab a recipe and make a batch of homemade chicken soup (sans noodles), then freeze it in Tupperware containers. It will keep throughout flu season, and if you get sick, all you have to do is throw the soup-cicle into a pot. When you come down with a nasty flu, you aren't going to feel like going out or cooking anything... and that's the time you need good food the most. Make it easy on yourself; I can attest it helped me tons.

 

The swine flu is going to be like 5-10 flu seasons mixed into one. No it's not the end of the world or even close. I expect to see a good deal more deaths and hospitalizations then your normal flu. I think people might panic when the hospitals fill up like in Australia and Britain.

Here is a good Idea of the extent of the swine flu so far. http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/

 

Death, I'm the weak one and the swine flu (undiagnosed), didn't make me especially sick. Yea, I was sick, but been loads sicker in the past. My young, strong friend who overcomes a normal flu in 3 days, ended up with massive symptoms and breathing problems. She was extremely ill. Don't expect to react to this as you do the normal flu.

 

Ahh, the good old cytokine storm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm

The verdict seems to still be out whether this flu is more dangerous for healthy individuals- might depend on if/how it mutates in the fall.

When I was traveling abroad, I bought some facemasks at a Japanese convenience store just for kicks... now they're part of my BOB...

 

With the regular flu much more deadly I am not worring about this one. I am worring about how the government might use this against us. It was BO's Rahm E. who said let no crisis go to waste....

This flu seems a little too concocted and the overresponse is fishy.

Now as for the "shots" they will be coming out with soon, that is another story.....

 

If the government did nothing who would get blamed if things went to crap...a la Katrina?

 

In my opinion, a survivalist should prepare for a possible pandemic anyways. Swine Flu is just a possibility at this point and deserves notice, but everyone should prepare for sickness anyways, as well as disease vectors stemming from lack of infrastructure services due to sickness.

 

I've been reading that the 1918 Spanish Flu was created by vaccines back then? I will have to find the link. They say the countries that didn't have a vaccine were fine. Back then there was no air travel and look how bad it got. Now with no restrictions on the air travel and some countries in flu season already it is no worse than regular flu season. The vaccine once again is what we have to worry about.

 

I don't think one should panic over the swine flu yet

 

"If the government did nothing who would get blamed if things went to crap...a la Katrina?" - blackkitty

Given the government's fine track record on anything do you trust them? I don't trust the government to pick the winner of a one horse race.

Given that a proper flu vaccine would be months if not years in the making what the heck can they do exept F this up?

More to the point you ask this country needs to stop looking to government as the ANSWER and look at government more as the PROBLEM. IF Uncle Sam wanted to help with this then the Feds should have closed the border. But no we have to keep that border wide open for a whole host of special interest reasons. Now what they should be doing is some good old fashioned civil defense prep. Stockpiling beds, linens, food, water, medical supplies to cope with a massive outbreak that might shut down this nation's supply infrastructure of food, fuel, power and other vitals. BUT NO, they want to waste time with a vaccine that can't work.

Our tax dollars at work.

Government does not attract the best and brightest. It attracts the lazy and incompentent. Just go to your local/state or federal office and see how fast and compently they work. Then tell me if you trust them in a disater/emergency.

 

The media is hyping up the affects of the Flu for their own purpose and the government is taking over for its benefits.

Remember the Bird Flu fiasco? SARS? The perdictions that global warming and cooling would destroy the world and we would run out of oil by 1997?
(Reference- The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science.)

My dad is a family physician, a general doctor, and he plus the other doctors at the hospital he works at says that the only real extra harmful affect it has is a slightly higher communicability.

In other words, it's just the flu, nothing to worry about.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/chartier/chartier125.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/alston/alston33.html

Thanks. I've been saying this for months. The fear mongers will disagree with you but it's just the flu. Wash your hands often, avoid crowded areas, take deep breaths of fresh air often, stay rested, take your vitamins, drink plenty of water...ho hum...same old thing.

http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/lday2.htm

 

You're supposed to be survivalists in here - ready for any threat. So here is a threat, and you're all too busy arguing to do anything LOL !

 

Should I hide under a rock or run to the Artic region? I'm certainly not going to pump toxins, mercury, and monkey puss into my blood stream! Since some very renowned doctors (Dr. Lorraine Day and Dr. Ron Paul) have emphatically stated that the swine flu hype is designed to scare us into taking some mind-numbing immunization I feel that my best chance of survival is to avoid that shot of poison. If others prefer to stand in line like good and obedient sheep they may do so.

 

Any kind of flu bothers me. I get vaccines every year. Any kind of bug bothers me. Salmonella bothers me, Botchulism bothers me, Trichinosis bothers me, liver flukes, tape worms, Giardia, et al. It's all bad.

Anyway, it don't matter, there won't be enough to go around.

 

Panic will help get you killed, prepping will help keep you alive.

 

History has shown, A little panic, while prepping, will help you survive.