Do they know something about this flu that we don't?

[PCIntern]

This is unusual, even by 'hyping' standards 'perfected' by the Bush, Jr. Administration.

Just for the sake of argument, let's say that this were a Biologically engineered flu which they know would have a profound effect upon reaching the general population. This may neither be as simple as it sounds nor as random. There may be implications which are unclear at this point, but will become dramatically so later. Obviously, a good bio-weapon would have a low traceability and 'natural' clinical course which would become accentuated with exposure to the general population. I know...this sounds nuts, but I'm weirded out by the kind of attention this is getting from the highest elected officials and those whom they have appointed.

I'm not normally a tinfoil hat person with respect to stuff like this, but we have Governors, Homeland Security, and everyone and her brother all over this a priori.

I for one have never seen anything quite like it.

[Quantess]

1. Have you considered that maybe the govt is paying undue attention merely

as a distraction from more serious topics?

[Windy]

9. I think the government is handling it appropriately. Obama said their is no need to be overly

concerned. He's trying not to let it become a distraction. Unfortunately the media doesn't see it the same way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Disagree, MSNBC is on the background

they are covering this, but also covering the movement to impeach bybee, torture, et al

So I disagree

It just happens to be the top of the news item

[Quantess]

16. Good point. It's the media doing the overhyping, not the govt.

[Echo In Light]

28. Sure. But as we know, that's six of one, half a dozen of the other

[Skidmore]

27. I'm certain if there were no response at all, there would be griping

too.

Listen, if nothing else comes from this, we'll at least have a Secretary of DHHS.

[liberalmuse]

2. I understand where you're coming from...

but it appears to be a natural phenomenon. I think the alarm is over how quickly it is spreading, and the fact that there's a rather high death toll thus far. It's definitely not what we're used to as far as epidemics go. I've never seen anything like it, either, and I've been around for awhile.

[havocmom]

5. Another thing we are not used to: prompt government response by agencies responsible for action

after watching bush and criminals let NOLA sink without response for days, this business of government agencies getting into gear fast make take a bit of getting used to.

[renate]

21. I think that's what it is

It's kind of weird to see our government get prepared ahead of time to handle a potential problem, the way grown-ups do, instead of trying to cover their asses afterwards when nothing was done.

From what I've seen on TV, officials are trying to explain that right now they're preparing, not predicting. It seems pretty reassuring to me.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. Imagine .................

We have a competent government.

Yeah, that takes some getting used to .....................

[Windy]

8. That's because this hit during spring break and Mexico's highest tourist season.

If it wasn't for that, the outbreak would be much more localized.

[Mz Pip]

3. There was quite a bit of

hype in 1976 when the potential for a Swine Flu epidemic surfaced. Legionnaire's Disease was another that got a lot of attention.

The big difference with this is we now have 24 hour cable news that magnifies events like this.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. Hype?

Try AIDS.

Remember what THAT was like back in the eighties when it was first detected? ARC, HIV, AIDS - kids not allowed to go to public schools (Ryan White, that sweet boy, who became a poster child and who should still be with us, dammit), people losing jobs and health insurance, landlords throwing sick people out of their apartments?

Ah, yes, those were the days ......................

[Mz Pip]

20. I remember when AIDS first hit

There certainly was a lot of misinformation thrown about. It was considered a quick death sentence and that scared a lot of people.

Sadly it no longer is getting the attention it needs and it is making a comeback.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Some people are behaving badly .............

That's the scariest news I'd heard in a long time - that condoms are no longer regarded as absolutely necessary. Plus, the men on the downlow are infecting straight women, and teenagers are maybe the worst in terms of at risk behavior.

Scary ...................

[eShirl]

4. they know it's not something to laugh off

so in other words, yes

[nonconformist]

6. I'm not buying into the tinfoil on this

I think, in regards to the government, they're erring on the side of caution. If it turns out this swine flu sweeps through the nation, infecting thousands and perhaps killing several people, they would be criticized for not taking this situation seriously. In regards to media coverage, nothing ramps up ratings quite like a pandemic scare.

[SheilaT]

7. It's my opinion that this is simply

the typical overreaction to anything and everything that has been occurring ever since September 11, 2001. Possibly the intentions are good. The potential for a deadly outbreak of flu (or something else) is always out there. But what I seem to be seeing right now (and I'm fortunate enough not to have a TV so I miss a LOT of stuff)feels like hype well beyond any real danger here.

We are rapidly approaching "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" phenomenon. We've seen it in the past with hurricane evacuations. Someone only needs to get caught once in a 20 hour nightmare of evacuation and no hurricane to decide to ignore the warnings next time.

In the case of disease outbreak hysteria, I don't know for sure what the down side is. The warnings to avoid all public gatherings are only minimally effective at best. Wearing face masks are likewise of limited value. What does help is hand washing. Thorough, frequent hand washing. Sick people should stay home. All too often sick people don't, they go off to work, to school, to the movies, to grocery stores. And spread disease merrily along the way.

A personal story on the above. Some years back, when my sons were about 4 and 8, we went off one Sunday out to a tourist area and spent a fair amount of time mingling with the crowds, when I suddenly realized the younger son was blossoming out in chicken pox. He'd been exposed two weeks earlier, and so this wasn't much of a surprise. I hustled them home as quickly as I could, and on the drive back, my older son volunteered that he'd noticed the spots several hours earlier, when we were eating breakfast. Out in a public restaurant. Older son also broke out later that day. They were both at maximum contagion at that point, and chances are some kids broke out with chicken pox two weeks later and the parents had no clue exactly how or where they'd been exposed.

[benddem]

10. the thing that bothers me

is the randomness of the outbreaks. Who traveled from Mexico City to NYC to Spain to somewhere in Canada. No outbreak in CA, OR, WA.
This defies anything I know about transmission of disease.
On edit...I think Cheney is responsible. (snark)

[PCIntern]

12. One airline flight can do that...

in terms of infected passenger affecting others who are gong all over the place, but I know what you mean...

[Posteritatis]

19. And it's got what seems to be a really short incubation period

A school group in Nova Scotia - three teachers and I think 26 students - was in Mexico until about two days ago. They got back, and within a day 25 of them were showing flu symptoms.

They're all fine now (already!), which is some more of that weirdness about how mild the northern cases are, but it looks like something that's really virulent but also burns out quickly. The former's a problem, but the latter would probably help to slow the spread abroad, since it has so little time to nail people once they stop moving.

[crimsonblue]

26. the short incubation period means that there wont be....

enough time for the disease to spread to global pandemic levels. The Spanish flu has a much longer incubation period, and this was part of the reason it was so deadly. Other deadly diseases, such as Ebola, also have very short incubation times, meaning the virus can't find new hosts fast enough to propogate itself.

[jody]

14. There are cases in CA and Vancouver. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. There are clusters in Cali,

arizone and texas

[Junkdrawer]

11. 4 months ago, researchers isolated the genes that made the 1918 flu so fatal....

Scientists isolate genes that made 1918 flu lethal
Dec. 29, 2008

by Terry Devitt

By mixing and matching a contemporary flu virus with the "Spanish flu" — a virus that killed between 20 and 50 million people 90 years ago in history's most devastating outbreak of infectious disease — researchers have identified a set of three genes that helped underpin the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus.

Writing today (Dec. 29) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Tokiko Watanabe identifies genes that gave the 1918 virus the capacity to reproduce in lung tissue, a hallmark of the pathogen that claimed more lives than all the battles of World War I combined.

"Conventional flu viruses replicate mainly in the upper respiratory tract: the mouth, nose and throat. The 1918 virus replicates in the upper respiratory tract, but also in the lungs," causing primary pneumonia among its victims, says Kawaoka, an internationally recognized expert on influenza and a professor of pathobiological sciences in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. "We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia."

...

http://www.news.wisc.edu/16103

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. The WHO does this every time we have a possible outbreak

we have been expecting this since at least 1996

I think that every time we have dodged the bullet it has been for good biological reasons, avian flu, has not reached this point

Or SARS, where actual meassures worked

Also we have had swine flu pandemics hit human populations since at least the 1500s, first probable accounts, and for sure since 1918

We have had them in 1918, 1957 and 1968, with a scare in the 1970s

So this happens

It only tells me you were not around for the last time... or just don't remember it

The 1968 I was very young... but I do remember the landing on the moon, one of my first memories in fact

and the 1970s, in Mexico it wasn't that big of a deal

[backscatter712]

24. Dunno. Anyone having dreams of an elderly black woman in a cornfield?

She's 106 years old and still bakes her own bread...

[Echo In Light]

29. LOL "Baby, can you dig your man?"

;)

[Avalux]

25. PC Intern: Read this, then you tell me.

Virus is very similar to 1918 pandemic virus....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5539800&mesg_id=5539800

[PCIntern]

30. Ed Zachary!

I'm wary...that's all.

Stephen King's "the Stand" was the prototypical apocalyptic book on Plague in the late 20th Century. Jack London's The Scarlet Plague was remarkable in its own right...

[Avalux]

31. It's OK to be wary.

But this isn't a work of fiction and for those like myself who understand and have studied viruses, there are reasons for concern.

[PCIntern]

32. I agree with your position...

I am an experienced clinician who has survived many close-calls and other nightmares. this has the hallmarks of severe in the grand scheme of things...

[RainDog]

33. I think it's hyped to distract from torture revelations

it's too early in the year for shark fear week.