Swine flu: the imminent pandemic

[otters~1]

I personally think this is mainly hype. I mean, come on. How many people have died outside of Mexico?

One. The man that Blackson was talking about. Wasn't he over 60, as well? (which would mean he would have been more suseptable to the virus).

Pretty sure it was a toddler who'd come to Houston to get some med care. He was from Mexico.

[lord_day]

In fact, as quoted from the knower of all things, Wikipedia: "By late April, however, some virologists believed that this strain was unlikely to cause as many fatalities as earlier pandemics, and may not even be as damaging as a typical flu season."

I think part of the reason the virus may not cause much damage, is because we were so fearful that it would be a pandemic. If we had reguarded this as a regular flu, then who knows what may have happened.

[Neil_Bryan]

The swine flu is an outbreak, right? So it is BAD.

swine flu...

...is now called H1N1 flu.

[the_happy_taco]

so many ppl are covering there mouths for the swine flu, but no one covers up for aids

what the hell

[Yoshimo]

Besides, we need a good bout of death to wipe out most of the race.

I always thought that that was the case, but it's not. Think: If about 1/12 of the population (500 million people) die, It's bound to be some loved ones you know. Then how will you cope? Saying that 'Earth is overpopulated and that that justifies their death won't make you feel better. What if your relatives died What if you died?

You're kind of being a bitch, for lack of a better term, right there.

[T3chno]

so many ppl are covering there mouths for the swine flu, but no one covers up for aids

This man is a genius.

Besides, we need a good bout of death to wipe out most of the race.

I always thought that that was the case, but it's not. Think: If about 1/12 of the population (500 million people) die, It's bound to be some loved ones you know. Then how will you cope? Saying that 'Earth is overpopulated and that that justifies their death won't make you feel better. What if your relatives died What if you died?

You're kind of being a bitch, for lack of a better term, right there.

That sounds a bit flamey, Bionic. I'm sure yungerkid didn't mean it too seriously.

[Universezero]

It be biological warfare! I blame New Zealand.

Your death shall not come swiftly, you shall suffer the unending wrath of beelzebub!

It is bad, as the news is longer now. ;_;

[CaptainPolio]

It isn't as bad as it seems, it can be easily treated. As far as I know the only reason the people who died in Mexico were killed was because of inadequate healthcare.

[goatman]

Paranoia is humanities way of asking 'What? We're the same race?!"

Humanitie's stuffed up. Swine flu is the very least. You may as well be concerned about being eaten by gravel.

[Alex777]

I think its 50% hype and 50% fear because the media is making it sound so much worse.

[T3chno]

Swine flu = Conficker

/endthread?

[Torex]

I remember bird flu was going around somewhere in Eurasia, and everyone was freaking out. I kept thinking that there was going to be this big mega-disease that would wipe out half of Europe, but then I kept watching the news, and it all faded away without anything really happening. This seems bigger, because it's closer to the US, but I still think it's gonna be nothing. My friend who's in Mexico until July, he's not worrying at all. He's glad he has no school until Wednesday. He's coming home in two weeks, and we don't care. I only care about school getting canceled. I'm pissed off right now because I came close, since it just happened in the county above me, but not here. I'm not even worried about catching it, because I've got a pretty strong immune system. Thanks to my need to tell the truth, I always tried to get myself sick when I wanted to miss school instead of faking it. That doesn't work anymore because licking the wheels of my rusty old scooter gave my body a lot of experience with germs. I'm just glad this isn't like last year when everyone in Miami was worried about their kids dying when one person died from MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). That was crazy.

[otters]

Besides, we need a good bout of death to wipe out most of the race.

I always thought that that was the case, but it's not. Think: If about 1/12 of the population (500 million people) die, It's bound to be some loved ones you know. Then how will you cope? Saying that 'Earth is overpopulated and that that justifies their death won't make you feel better. What if your relatives died What if you died?

You're kind of being a bitch, for lack of a better term, right there.

...I think he meant, "we WOULD need a good bout of death to wipe out most of the race."

[yungerkid]

I always thought that that was the case, but it's not. Think: If about 1/12 of the population (500 million people) die, It's bound to be some loved ones you know. Then how will you cope? Saying that 'Earth is overpopulated and that that justifies their death won't make you feel better. What if your relatives died What if you died?

You're kind of being a bitch, for lack of a better term, right there.

we would need a good bout of death to kill everyone, that is true. i'm sure if humanity reacts this violently to a minor disease, that if there were a major pandemic killing millions, we would get down to real business, especially with the current social climate. i know death is a horrible thing. but we really do need a bit of population control. the reason that the environment is being destroyed (if it even is, due to human influence) is that there are *too many* of us, not that *what we're doing* is wrong. i don't think a disease is the best solution, but we need to control our numbers a bit. i'm not even advocating killing people. my point with that statement was that we do need to kind of start over.

[Seneschal]

i'm not even advocating killing people

Wow, that's generous of you.

we would need a good bout of death to kill everyone, that is true.

Yeah, not like these bad bouts of death we've had recently. And kill everyone? What could of monster are you?

i'm sure if humanity reacts this violently to a minor disease, that if there were a major pandemic killing millions, we would get down to real business, especially with the current social climate. i know death is a horrible thing. but we really do need a bit of population control

Right, let's get down to real business. For some reason, given the context, this seems like a mafia-like euphemism, i.e. real business = population culling. Am I just being paranoid, or is this really what you're suggesting?

i don't think a disease is the best solution, but we need to control our numbers a bit.

Maybe we do need to control our numbers a bit, but definitely not with the methods you seem to be suggesting, which involve killing large numbers of people. How would you go about doing this anyway? Choosing who lives and who dies? Would you launch some kind of eugenical campaign, selecting only prime specimens for your future society? Or would you pull the names out of an enormous hat, leaving it to God complete chance? Perhaps even slaughter all non-christians, as they're all heathens anyway.
Of course, I'm not saying ridiculous measures such as contraception should be employed, because obviously they go against God's ineffable plan, and we can't have that, can we?

You're kind of being a bitch, for lack of a better term, right there.

QFE. Although "genocidal-ungrammatical-maniac" is equally good, I feel.

[Yoshimo]

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QFE. Also, I wasn't suggesting that our current population is exceptable. We're currently overpopulated! While we would definatly benefit from this being fixed, I don't see any ethical way to do this.

[乳头的早餐谷物]

I remember bird flu was going around somewhere in Eurasia, and everyone was freaking out. I kept thinking that there was going to be this big mega-disease that would wipe out half of Europe, but then I kept watching the news, and it all faded away without anything really happening.

From your perspective, it just faded away, but millions of dollars have been spent and millions of birds culled just to keep the situation under control, to say nothing of the money being spent for preperations if a pandemic does occur. From one perspective it might seem like a huge over-reaction, but to do anything less would be foolish. The human race has experienced influenza pandemics that killed millions, and the cost of being under-prepared for one is far greater than that of being over-prepared.

[yungerkid]

Yeah, not like these bad bouts of death we've had recently. And kill everyone? What could of monster are you?

i was saying that we would need a *hefty* bout of killing. i did not mean morally good. neither was i suggesting that we *should* kill everyone.

Right, let's get down to real business. For some reason, given the context, this seems like a mafia-like euphemism, i.e. real business = population culling. Am I just being paranoid, or is this really what you're suggesting?

by real business, i meant that if humanity reacts this much over swine flu, it would react in a much bigger way over a pandemic that has already killed millions and looks like it's going to kill many more. by real business, i meant humanity trying its hardest to stop deaths from continuing. it seems to me like you strained real hard there to get that sentence to fit your conception of my point. that was not at all what i was referring to. it was in the context of how humanity would react to a disease. i'd have to be real mentally diseased myself to suggest that humans would start killing millions if a disease is already killing millions, don't you think?

...the methods you seem to be suggesting, which involve killing large numbers of people.

point out to me where i suggested that we should kill *anyone*. because i certainly did not do that. in fact, i wrote that whole post explaining that i was *not* advocating killing anyone. i think contraception (or at least limits on family size) would be the best method of going about population control. the Bible does not say that contraception goes against God's plan. if it did, well then there have been millions of babies prevented because of contraception over the years. you know that Christians believe that God is omnipotent. why then do you even consider that we might be anywhere near able to defeat His plan? i mean, we're just humans. weak humans, as well. contraception is allowable.

ungrammatical-

what? where? i always write with well english and good speling.

stop misconstruing my posts. we're not here to argue whether yungerkid wants to kill everything or not.

[Seneschal]

ungrammatical-

what? where? i always write with well english and good speling.

It's interesting that in refuting that, you actually made the same mistake I was chastising you for - namely not capitalising. If that's just a problem with your caps lock, then I apologise. Then again, "well english" isn't great either, but I assume that's just a typo like the one I myself made earlier.

stop misconstruing my posts. we're not here to argue whether yungerkid wants to kill everything or not.

Ok, fair enough, I apologise. But then again...

we would need a good bout of death to kill everyone

neither was i suggesting that we *should* kill everyone.

Hmm...

by real business, i meant that if humanity reacts this much over swine flu, it would react in a much bigger way over a pandemic that has already killed millions and looks like it's going to kill many more. by real business, i meant humanity trying its hardest to stop deaths from continuing. it seems to me like you strained real hard there to get that sentence to fit your conception of my point. that was not at all what i was referring to. it was in the context of how humanity would react to a disease. i'd have to be real mentally diseased myself to suggest that humans would start killing millions if a disease is already killing millions, don't you think?

Yeah, I was getting carried away and started to be a bitch, so sorry.
Swine Flu isn't yet a pandemic, as only a 100 or so people have died and most of them were in Mexico. While it is true that humanity would react to a pandemic more than they would to a minor disease, I don't think allowing Swine Flu to become a pandemic in the first place is the best way to save lives. A better solution would just be to try and prevent it from becoming one in the first place. Even a disease which kills millions of people won't really solve the world's overcrowding problems - think about it. About 4 babies are born every second - that's means, on average, 345600 babies are born every day. Within a week, the population size would return to normal.
Yes, the sheer number of people in this world may be a problem, but allowing disease to kill people won't change any of that.

i think contraception (or at least limits on family size) would be the best method of going about population control. the Bible does not say that contraception goes against God's plan. if it did, well then there have been millions of babies prevented because of contraception over the years. you know that Christians believe that God is omnipotent. why then do you even consider that we might be anywhere near able to defeat His plan? i mean, we're just humans. weak humans, as well. contraception is allowable.

I agree about contraception, although I disagree with the rest of this, but that kind of argument belongs in the Do-you-believe-in-God-thread. Nevertheless, I'd like to just point out that for someone who's omnibenevolent and omnipotent simultaneously (God), a lot of people seem to be dying, experiencing agony and going to hell, and thus experiencing torture for all goddamn eternity in this plan of his - perhaps it's time for plan B, the send-everyone-up-to heaven-and-have-a-good-ol'-laugh-plan?

[origami_alligator]

so many ppl are covering there mouths for the swine flu, but no one covers up for aids

what the hell

Yeah, man, I was walking around downtown and this guy comes up to me and is all like, "Hey bro, do you have a quarter for the bus?" and then he coughed on me and I asked him why he was sick and he said he had AIDS at which point I immediately covered my mouth so that I wouldn't contract it.

Coincidentally, I had sex the other night and contracted swine flu. FML.

[blackson]

Oh look! The United States media hinted to over publisizing the Swine Flu!

[Drathmoore]

Maybe we should learn something from this, and decrease the population rate (I mean rate of children being born, not to excite any genocidal contributors in the thread).

Various countries have too many people, or too high of a population rate. Why? Because there is some benefit to it. Take China, for example. The reason there's so many children is because most families want a male heir. That way, the family can benefit economically from a marrige.

Britain is another good example. Over here, people can claim benefits if they cannot work/earn under a certain amount, to hlep look after their children. As this amount of money increases with more children, some families believe that having more and more children is an acceptable way of earning money. You end up with families in counsel houses, with a huge amount of children. This leads to even more unacceptable behaviour, such as in the case of Karen Matthews; a woman who had 7 children, was on benefits, and still decided to arrange to have one of her children kidnapped by a family member, so that they could claim the 50,000 Pound reward when said family member took her to the police.

I'm not sure what they can do in China, but I know for a fact that they won't do anything about benefits in the UK. The government is too protective about the human rights act. So much so that a man who raped a two-year-old is trying to use the human rights act to escape trial. It's just stupid really.

I'm not as much scared about Swine Flu as I'm scared about the Government... Gordon Brown's done more damage than Flu will do.

[Minion_of_Pi]

Almost all of the cases in the US (and worldwide) have been mild enough not to even require hospitalization.
I'm not too worried, but still, it is a never-before-seen virus, and as such we don't really know what turns it could take.
Bottom line is, try to stay healthy; then again, that's good advice 100% of the time.

[Seneschal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8032697.stm

Damn it! I go to school just down the road from here! Oh well, if you don't see me around for a while, you know the reason.

[the_happy_taco]

this would have been bad about............................700 years ago, when the life span was 20