BREAKING NEWS: NY official says city has 20 more swine flu cases, additional 17 probable cases

[Roon]

Source: MSNBC

BREAKING NEWS: NY official says city has 20 more swine flu cases, additional 17 probable cases
No link yet.

No link yet.

[jody]

1. Google Map for H1N1 Swine Flu, link below, appears to be updated often.

Google Map for H1N1 Swine Flu

[OhioChick]

2. Thanks for posting that. n/t

[AllHereTruth]

3. BREAKING NEWS: Theres alyways some new strain

AND ITS GOING TO KILL YOU. maybe. well actually no.

"Mexico's Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordoba said 68 people have died of flu and the new swine flu strain had been confirmed in 20 of those deaths."

Thats what all the fuss is about. A strain of flu that has killed a few dozen in Mexico. I would hardly call 20 'New' flu cases in NY BREAKING NEWS...I guess the MM has nothing better to BREAK these days.

[kestrel91316]

4. 1000 cases, 83 dead in Mexico - that's the last I heard. In case your math skills

are impaired, that translates to a better than 8% mortality, which is astonishingly high. Especially considering that the deaths are primarily in young, otherwise healthy adults, and not the traditionally vulnerable babies and elderly.

The US population is about 300 million. 8% of 300 million = 24 million. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, asshole.

[Mz Pip]

11. Those are the ones

that were reported. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more cases where people never saw a doctor or got a diagnosis. Not everyone who has flu symptoms seeks medical help.

[kestrel91316]

19. Very true. And those will skew the mortality rate way down.

[xiamiam]

25. last year i had a bronchial thing which i thought could have killed me

started in puerto rico on xmas vacation...i looked up severe chest infection...prescribed dosage of amoxicyllin happened to be recently prescribed for upcoming dental work...so i took it.. saved my life, i think...didnt go to a doctor ...so i dont really know what i had..but it lingered..and my guess is pneumonia ultimately..but i had just completed a two year intensive surgical merry go round at one of the best medical centers in the country, frankly, i was sick of doctors, doctor wannabees, and the entire system...

[Mz Pip]

27. If you had died

an autopsy would have been done to determine the cause of death. So if people are sick and don't go to the doctor there's no way of knowing what they have.

Only way they know it's Swine Flu is if you go in and get tested or end up dead and then get tested. These numbers may not take into account people who stay home and get well on their own.

That's not to say this isn't serious. I'm sure there are all kinds of statisical models that look at many different factors.

[AllHereTruth]

14. 70 cases confirmed.

I just heard on NPR there have been 70 TOTAL confirmed cases WORLDWIDE. I would hardly call this a pandemic...Have you noticed every year for the past 10 years there is some world wide 'Scare' - Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, asshole (btw why would you call me an asshole?)

It seems a bit overzealous to assume every new 'strain' will cause worldwide destruction and chaos.

EDIT: LINK

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/27/swine.flu/index.html <-----Here is a link. I am not trying to say we should not be wary. But this is the ONLY story being broadcast on NPR. Cable news. and DU the past few days, Over 73 people dieing. Thats my point. If i failed to make it properly the onus is on me.

In the story 'President Obama said Monday that the swine flu outbreak is a "cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert," but is not a "cause for alarm."' - This is classic Media making something bad so much worse imo.

[axollot]

26. Dude we get a lot of hurricanes every year too but we *really* ..

...were concerned watching Ike and Katrina cross over land (and didn't panic on EVERY hurricane). This is the virus mutation, the ONE, that they've been telling us COULD happen for about for the last 10 years. This is the mutation they didn't want to see, and it's mutating fast, Mexico let it slip for about a month in a bustling city of over 20 million people before it was found and it's already all over the world.
Bird Flu was isolated cases. This is Human 'bird-flu' basically, that broke out in the largest city in the world which happens to be a 3rd world country.

We barely know how long it has been traveling.

This is not to say I do not agree with the President. I do. Talking to my son today who's 19, we agree, there is NEVER a time to 'panic' as panic leads to bad things and people running about, but we should act PREPARED just as we would when a hurricane is heading your way. You monitor it and prepare yourself to be cut off for about a week. Between Australia and Florida I've learned emergency preparedness and we are as a world, rather than a city in emergency preparedness state. We don't need to clean the shelves off, but, you certainly (and everyone should with the weather in NA anyway) should have family back up plans and extra food, water, meds etc. Just prepare and make people socially aware of the dangers and preventative measures one can do to lessen the effect of this virus.

Nothing would make me happier than to have prepared for nothing than to NOT prepare at all. Just saying.
And as a Mum of a Kindergartner, medical masks sound better and better every day. And no, I didn't freak out at all over the other viruses such as SARS, West Nile, Bird Flu etc. But this one has my attention with good reason.

Cheers
Sandy
who hopes she is very wrong here.

[4_TN_TITANS]

16. Thank-you for the perspective...

I too hadn't given this much concern until I saw your numbers. <covering face with mask>

[axollot]

24. That is what I've been trying to tell my family...that translates to a LOT of people!!

We have to be proactive - first sign, get checked out. But, we need to make sure to sneeze into the crook of our elbow and wash our hands for 20 seconds (for those of us with those germ carrying young kids, I tell them about the time it takes to get through your abc's and they love it) often. And remind your friends and work mates to do the same. Sound like the crazy person in the room if it helps kill this virus's ability to wipe about 20% of 6 billion people. 8% is just the start sadly....like 1917-1918 when 20% of the world was killed by a pandemic (is WW3 starting soon too? Cause we sure look like the 20th century)which translates to 40 million people in 1 year world wide. We are NOT better equipped to handle this new strain and still face many of the same challenges they did 100 years ago, that's not to say we are not at all more advanced, over all we ARE better trained but this virus can still do a lot of damage.

HuffPo has a great one on all this called "The Anatomy of a Sneeze" and relevant information to be very proactive until this passes. Expect to see the worst of this one over the next flu season - it mutates way to fast......

Cheers
Sandy

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[myrna minx]

6. I think I'll receive my information from a epidemiologist

and not some message board snarker who belittles the dead.

[uberblonde]

7. Doctors in Mexico City say the numbers are wrong.

Yesterday, they wrote that the death numbers are much higher than the government is reporting, and the government has now confirmed 139 deaths.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm

[aquart]

8. The known world is scared shitless but not you, o clever one.

So I will say it again because you seem to have missed the pith: the Mexico outbreak is KILLING THE WRONG DEMO. It is killing young, healthy adults. Normal flu leaves them alone. THIS flu specializes in them. The entire world, except you, is scared BECAUSE THIS IS THE PANDEMIC DEMO.

And here's another fun fact someone at DU dropped yesterday: the 1918-19 pandemic came in three waves: mild in summer, then progressively more deadly in fall and then winter. THAT's what health officials know and you don't.

[Abacus]

9. And its mortality rate was *only* 2%

We're looking at about 3x that so far.

[CountAllVotes]

10. my old uncle died in Sept. of 1918

cause of death was the Spanish flu. He was in the prime of his life and was a well-known attorney in San Francisco. He died quickly leaving behind his wife and kids and it happened just like that. *gone*

:kick:

[crispini]

12. So in that case, would it be better to get it now, when it's mild?

Maybe we should all go out and try to get this form which seems to be milder, at least in the states? Hmm.....

[Divine Discontent]

13. why do you insist on embarrasing yourself?

the death rate for contracted cases is 100x's higher than the NORMAL flu. This isn't the NORMAL flu. It's a cross-species strain that is not a huge deal (hopefully will never be) but is important enough to warrant precautions by the president and DHS/HHS and of course the CDC to respond to this so it DOESN'T become a killer like it did just down the road in Mexico.

Sheesh, seriously do you ACT like this in person? I can see people saying "cancel all flights from Mexico" as being a bit overboard at this time (as I've read), but when people are reporting 20 new cases - they don't need scoffed at by some dweeb in his room being a jerkball for no damn reason other than to anonymously be mean-spirited.

[AllHereTruth]

17. A dweeb in his room being a jerkball?

So far in this thread ive been called an 'Asshole' and a 'Dumb dweeb in his room' - I am neither. I would not make this broad assumption about you, why make it about me?

All im saying is it seems a bit overzealous to get into a worldwide panic every time a few people get infected from a new strain. I fully understand taking precautions, as it is the best way to ward off potential catastrophe, but turning 20 cases into a pandemic seems, again, a bit overzealous.

If im wrong show me why, give me reasons. Do not resort to calling me childish names. How old are we? I am the one being called names, yet you are the ones throwing those names around at will.

I cant emphasize how much it irks me to be called a dweeb in his room being a jerkball. Granted it is the Internet, so not much more is to be expected, But i figured DU was different...maybe its not.

[nichomachus]

20. Actually, you're the one implying other people are stupid

There may be only a few cases now, but you need to know how epidemics work and what the potential is for developing problems.

You're dealing with an airborne virus for which most people have no natural immunity. It's already spreading to distant places and is possibly infecting a lot of other people. Once these things get a foothold, they tend to spread exponentially. So, it may be a few cases today, but it could be a lot of cases a few weeks from now.

Public health agencies tend to be very conservative about reacting to these types of threats. So, I will listen to them before some anonymous poster on the Internet belittling people for overreacting.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Two things I've learned at DU over the years

1) Most people want there to be a huge, cataclysmic, giant, earth-shattering event going on all the time. It allows them to train their thoughts on something, and speak on it in some knowledgeable way based on very superficial browsing of internet news. It fills up some hole if there's Something Going On that they can think and speak about. This void and need to fill the void is essentially the hidden business plan of every cable news station, popular blog, and discussion board. Content doesn't matter, except so far as the greatest possible number can plausibly claim some Direct Personal Connection to the event ("my cousin once worked at Cantor Fitzgerald," "the high school in the next town over also had a senior class trip to Aruba," and the like), thereby filling the void more thoroughly.

2) If you tell them that the huge, cataclysmic, giant, earth-shattering event is not really so huge, or cataclysmic, or giant, or earth-shattering, these people will train their vitriol on YOU with maximum aggressiveness and violence. You are essentially thereby telling people that the single thread separating them from the reality of their banal existence is not particularly real, and that they should turn their thoughts back to a consideration of their own lives in a largely meaningless system of capitalist exploitation. You are taking away their apparent power. People immediately deduce that you're calling them stupid, which is untrue, but nevertheless a reasonable deduction, given the circumstances. You should never do this, first because it doesn't help, and second, because most folks are better off with the illusion that the Something Going On has some relevance and meaning. The alternative is the grinding theft of labor power for profit, and the casual meaninglessness of the consumer detritus and manufactured happiness that serves as a seeming reward and punishment for that theft.

:-)

[harun]

18. You have a high number "confirmed" because it was confirmed in

U.S. labs. Everyone knows it is widespread in Mexico City where they aren't going to be rushing everything to the labs as quickly as in the U.S.

A new flu with avian/swine/human DNA that people are not immune to is a big deal. It could just be your standard flu run or it could be a super nasty monster. It is without a doubt going to be affecting world wide travel, so yah I would say that is news.

I'd rather hear about this than "Grade the First 100 Days", "Smiled Too Much at Hugo" and "His Name is BO". This is at least scientifically interesting and relevant.

This might not be the big one but world wide flu's pop up often enough to pay attention.

[defendandprotect]

15. Has anyone in NJ reported feeling ill?

My son was sick last week -- for a week with a stomach thing --

he thought it was food poisoning???

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. Your son had swine flu!!!

You are now part of the story, and can bask in it as your own!!!

:eyes:

[defendandprotect]

22. Oh, the glory of it all -- !!!

:bounce:

Actually, I'm hoping that it wasn't because he may have exposed us ... ???