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thedarkroom wrote:
Jody wrote:
Would this actually even be in the news if was just a new strain of regular flu? If it didn’t have the tag “Swine Flu” attached to it, a name that will conjure a lot more fear in the minds of the public, no alone from the word itself, but also from the fact that it will play on past stories like Bird Flu and even Mad Cow Disease.
I think it would because, as I said earlier, they are looking for a new story now that the economic difficulties are no longer ‘new’ news. The media will make it in to a story because they need to sell papers and at the end of the day higher the circulation numbers and listener figures the better because it increases advertising revenue. Bottom line!
Marilyn Manson was right… It’s all about Fear and Consumption
shutterbug wrote:
Look if it isnt a pandemic it could be a No 10 bus, whats the point
in worrying about it? As it says in the song “Dont worry – be happy”I’m happy as a pig in sh1te. I’m not scared by it, just totally fascinated. I’d hate
my kids to die, and they’re a bit young to become orphans, but for myself I’m happy
to take my chances.jody wrote:
Its the result of 24 hour media in the modern age trying to fill airspace.
That’s bollix I’m afraid. It’s human nature to be sceptical, just as it’s human nature to panic
en masse sometimes. If this strain of H1N1 is infectious as it appears to be, then there *will*
be a lot of deaths even if it’s not a particularly ‘bad’ flu. At some point there will be a virus
like the H5N1 bird flu that wipes out tens of millions of people. Most of them will be in India,
Africa and China – maybe that’s why we can be blasé.There ARE confirmed cases outside Mexico. This certainly suggests that the virus is spreading.
I’m not a doom-monger. I ate beef throughout the BSE scare. I rushed out to buy cheap pork
when there was a scare about eating it. I undercook eggs. I eat butter like it’s going out of
production. I had my children injected with MMR vaccine because I reckoned the autism
story was bollix. I sincerely believe that the sea-levels haven’t risen. But I am 100% sure that
a virus or bacterial epidemic will kill 100 million people – probably in my lifetime.PeteTheBloke wrote:
shutterbug wrote:
Look if it isnt a pandemic it could be a No 10 bus, whats the point
in worrying about it? As it says in the song “Dont worry – be happy”I’m happy as a pig in sh1te. I’m not scared by it, just totally fascinated. I’d hate
my kids to die, and they’re a bit young to become orphans, but for myself I’m happy
to take my chances.jody wrote:
Its the result of 24 hour media in the modern age trying to fill airspace.
That’s bollix I’m afraid. It’s human nature to be sceptical, just as it’s human nature to panic
en masse sometimes. If this strain of H1N1 is infectious as it appears to be, then there *will*
be a lot of deaths even if it’s not a particularly ‘bad’ flu. At some point there will be a virus
like the H5N1 bird flu that wipes out tens of millions of people. Most of them will be in India,
Africa and China – maybe that’s why we can be blasé.There ARE confirmed cases outside Mexico. This certainly suggests that the virus is spreading.
I’m not a doom-monger. I ate beef throughout the BSE scare. I rushed out to buy cheap pork
when there was a scare about eating it. I undercook eggs. I eat butter like it’s going out of
production. I had my children injected with MMR vaccine because I reckoned the autism
story was bollix. I sincerely believe that the sea-levels haven’t risen. But I am 100% sure that
a virus or bacterial epidemic will kill 100 million people – probably in my lifetime.I agree 100% with the whole of your last paragraph, however I don’t agree that just because a virus or bacterial epidemic is due that the current about of blanket media coverage for swine flu is warranted.
Yes there are confirmed cases of it outside Mexico, but no deaths. To date this new strain has killed a total of 7 people…. and it happened in a poor country where I’d imagine that health service is not very good, although I can’t be sure of that… I’m surmising.
The fact is that if this happened back in the 80s the fear of the virus wouldn’t be there, because there would be limited amount of column inches and limited time on the 6 and 9 o’clock irish news for people to get their information problem. Because there is now 24 hour news channels and basically 24 hour websites battling against each other for more watchers/readers the result is a lot of predicting, surpising, speculation and guessing that results in widespread needless panic.
Jody wrote:
I agree 100% with the whole of your last paragraph, however I don’t agree that just because a virus or bacterial epidemic is due that the current about of blanket media coverage for swine flu is warranted.
I take your point. Especially after the bird flu and SARS things fizzled out.
However, in my (admittedly layman’s) opinion, this boy does seem to have
legs although the mortality rate appears to be low at the moment.In purely statistical terms, if it sweeps the world and achieves infection rates of
30-50% we might be able to rest easy – it was overdue anyway. Mind, in
roulette 10 blacks in a row might come up, but the next roll has a 50:50 chance
of being black (if anyone wants to argue about zero or double zero, please PM me).Don’t think popcorn is appropriate for viewing this debate.
Maybe some Blue Mountain coffee …
My shout, Gizzo.
Anybody else?
the actual strain has killed 7 people just because it reacts to drugs.
but in the same way it generated, it can evolve. it’s nature.
while moving from a host to another, it constantly replicates itself, and the more it replicates, the high the probability of genetical mutation.
and genetical mutation can mean different ways of attacking the host. we can’t predict when or how.
fighting virus is not an easy job. think about HIV. imagine something less lethal, but air-transmitted ;)BM I think I’ll have a coffee…. I need to stay awake :D
My grandfather was a GP in the countryside of Southern Scotland during the time of the 1957 Asian Flu.
A few years before his death he told me a story of a visit he had made to a farmhouse where a mother had reported that her three strapping young sons (in their 20s) were coming down with the flu. My grandfather made a visit and did all he could. He revisited in the morning to find that all three sons were dead.
Like Pete, I’m not scared. But he is absolutely right, it’s only a matter of time until something like this (or even worse) reoccurs in a new mutated form. The laws of natural selection requires viruses to mutate to survive. It is not in the interests of a virus to kill us, it really doesn’t care about that. It’s just trying to make us as sick as possible (preferably in a way where immunue response is delayed), so that we reinfect as many people as possible.
andy mcinroy wrote:
The laws of natural selection requires viruses to mutate to survive. It is not in the interests of a virus to kill us, it really doesn’t care about that. It’s just trying to make us as sick as possible (preferably in a way where immunue response is delayed), so that we reinfect as many people as possible.
amen!
No hype – just some new facts.
A further 2 cases in England – one in Birmingham, one in the West Country
(both had been to Mexico recently though).
A toddler has died of it in the USA.Very sad news.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Ah yes, Tamiflu reaps the profits for a drug that doesnt work, nice one Rumsfeld! Funny how there was an outbreak in fort dix in 1976 too.
The chances of “Bird flu” combining with “Swine flu” and the common flu without a bit of help are very small indeed….just like the Foot and mouth disease
that was “Stolen” from a government research lab and magically appeared all over the UK! They’ve been working on the Spanish flu virus of 1918 in the labs
for a while now, extracting it from the bodies of frozen whalers who succumbed to it up in the Arctic and were perfectly preserved in the frozen ground where they were buried.
By the law of probability we are due some super strain of virus, man made or not. When we were kids we ate muck,shared chewing gum,let dogs lick our faces and we were tough as old boots. Nowadays we have become sanitised……I’m off to lick a dead goose I found in the field :lol:Noely F wrote:
When we were kids we ate muck,shared chewing gum,let dogs lick our faces and we were tough as old boots. Nowadays we have become sanitised……I’m off to lick a dead goose I found in the field :lol:
I think a swim in the Liffey should make up for lost time. :D
Noely F wrote:
When we were kids we ate muck,shared chewing gum,let dogs lick our faces and we were tough as old boots.
Yeah and we had to take worm powders, catch fleas on bars of soap,
iron the hems to kill the lice, suffer mumps and measles, lockjaw and scarlet fever
and walk 5 miles to school with uz ‘eads painted purple cos ut ringworm.“And if you told the kids of today that, they wouldn’t believe you”……..Monty Python, 4 Yorkshiremen sketch……classic :lol:
Noely F wrote:
Ah yes, Tamiflu reaps the profits for a drug that doesnt work, nice one Rumsfeld! Funny how there was an outbreak in fort dix in 1976 too.
The chances of “Bird flu” combining with “Swine flu” and the common flu without a bit of help are very small indeed….just like the Foot and mouth disease
that was “Stolen” from a government research lab and magically appeared all over the UK! They’ve been working on the Spanish flu virus of 1918 in the labs
for a while now, extracting it from the bodies of frozen whalers who succumbed to it up in the Arctic and were perfectly preserved in the frozen ground where they were buried.Noely is Jim Corr!!!
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