It's still going around, several people I know had or have it. I have found myself with a slight sore throat this week and thought - swine flu? But I think it's from not changing the filter in my air conditioner.

Ehh looks like it's not really any more deadly that regular flu. Works pretty well to impress your friends though. For example:
Person 1: "Where you been for the last week, dude?"
Person 2: "I was sick."
Person 1: "Ohh man that is so weak! Your immune system sucks."
Person 2: "Not really. It was motherfucking SWINE FLU, bro. Yep, I survived. No big deal."
Person 1: "Whoa, dogg, swine flu? That's actually pretty hardcore. I'm impressed. Good job."

More people have been struck by lightning.

I will not get swine flu. I will not get the vaccine either. I already have enough weird stuff running around in my body from the dozens of shots I got every year in the Marines, I figure. Count me as unconcerned about Chicken Little's latest way for mankind to eat it. Ebola, Avian Flu, ect, were all supposed to be the end too. *yawns* Besides, worrying about that crap takes the fun out life...

Swine flu is making headlines on a daily basis. The virus is indeed spreading, but much of what the media reports on this is either pure hype or mere speculation.

The actual disease itself is quite mild, unless if you're very young or old or have some kind of immune disorder. Those are the most vulnerable populations, as in all cases of the flu.

My real concern is the possibility that the government might decide to force everyone to get vaccinated for swine flu. Back in the 1970's when there was a similar outbreak of the swine flu, the actual vaccine itself caused more deaths than the disease itself!! Several others got debilitating neurological diseases that in some cases left them as paraplegics for the rest of their lives. Today there are very real concerns about the safety of the vaccines that big pharma is pumping out for civilian populations.

The concerns are so great that a recent poll of registered nurses (who will be dealing with infected patients on a regular basis) revealed that over 2/3rd's of them will not be getting a swine flu vaccine. And why would they? How safe is a vaccine that has been developed in the time span of a few short weeks? That these vaccinations include mercury (a well known neurotoxin) and squaline, which is put in the vaccine to provoke a fast immune response, should serve as a fair warning to any reasonably intelligent consumer. The sad part about it all is that the media and the government may try to scare the public into getting the vaccine.

In matters of health, you are your own best advocate. Don't allow anyone to scare you into a treatment protocol that may not be in your best interests. Do your research before you proceed.

Significant in that the over-use of antibiotics has produced one, maybe two new strains of bugs that the proposed release of a vaccination in the Fall of '09 won't be able to recognize. Compared to the world-wide surge in diabetes, this was no "outbreak".

The real outbreak is the tsunami of lunacy that been gushing out of Washington this year.

Let the "Disagrees' fly...

Up Date: As we get closer and closer to the release of H1N1 vaccines, you will be hearing the use of the word "adjuvants'. These are chemicals that are added to vaccines to "awaken" our auto-immune systems. The list includes, but is not limited to ethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde, phenol (carbolic acid) and antibiotics like Neomycin and streptomycin. There is at least one other that I'm aware of and you should be aware of it , as well: Squalene. The introduction of Squalene as an adjuvant turbo-charges the auto-immune response. The problem is that Squalene is a naturally-occurring substance in our bodies and we ingest it every time we consume olive oil. It's a powerful anti-oxidant which fights disease. However, when introduced through injection, it by-passes our first lines of defense and aggressively seeks out and destroys anti-oxidants! Squalene is not approved for use in American vaccines, but Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline will be using it, anyways. It was used in the mass vaccination of our troops in the Gulf War for anthrax. It's so powerful that it, according to the manufacturers, it requires smaller doses and, thus, significantly reduces production time. These are the findings:

95% of those diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome received injections that contained Squalene and suffered from: arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Raynaud’s phenomenon, Sjorgren’s syndrome, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fevers.

Ironically, this is one chemical that HAS been mass-tested on humans, with deleterious effects and will still be used...children first. Needless to say, there are few things I have ever felt more strongly against than vaccinations. And I am truly concerned that mass immunization will be enforced as it already has been in certain locations.

Original review: 2 Helpful / 1 Funny / 0 Agree / 1 Disagree

Too early to rate accurately.

Early buzz is that Americans are getting 'sick' whereas there have been deaths in Mexico. . .will have to talk to my little elves in the medical industry here in the metro DC area to get the facts instead of the story. . .

Fund science, kids. It pays more dividends than prayer. . .

Mathematically, the virus will have one more mutation and that's the 'story'- does it make it more, less, or the same threat. Safe money (and science) tells you to actually get the virus now so your body has a blueprint for fighting a potential future threat of greater severity. . .

People pooh-poohing this have that luxury- but with this bug, it's one or two nasty mutations away of seriously exposing their ignorance of the subject.

We don't have domain over the beasts. . .the micro organisms tend to have dominion over us.

What a crock. What are we up to now in the US, 48 "mild" cases?
The media and the Obama Admin. are having a field day with this nonsense.
Socialized medicine anyone?

Update: How many deaths now in the US? Still zero? How many worldwide? 100? 150?
Gee...let's all run out, like good slaves to the WHO and big pharma and get our shots, take our pills, etc.
Knock yourselves out...

Update: OK, I'm bumping this story to four stars based on this: "The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the H1N1 flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case." If this thing mutates into something a bit nastier come flu season, we're looking at 28 Days Later (the horror movie, not the Sandra Bullock movie).

Update: I'm starting to get a little spooked. The WHO is using words like "unstoppable" and "pandemic" and there are signs that this Swine Flu is a cousin of the one in 1919 that killed 20-50M, as people born before 1920 seem have a curious immunity to this one. This thing seems to be gathering strength as we head towards flu season.

Original Comment: Still too early to tell if this will be a big story. Why the hype? Because a flu outbreak in 1919 killed between 20-50M people.

Detecting and warning about pandemics like a brand-new strain of virus that is potentially lethal to otherwise healthy people is precisely what the WHO is supposed to be doing.

It's looking like it was a lot of hype over nothing. It's just another strain of flu. Yes, people have died from swine flue, but the media forgets to remind you that deaths from more typical strains of flu aren't necessarily that unusual.

It was significant, but I was never really that worried about getting it.

With any luck, it's just that kid cryin', "WOLF!" again.

UPDATE:

It's Obama's fault?

When news of this broke, I was immediately reminded of SARS, Bird Flu and Spanish Flu. The media enjoys making a mountain out of a mole hill and they are yet again creating a panic where one need not exist. The annual deaths from the flu flux anywhere from 36,000 to a few hundred, depending on what CDC report you are quoting. Their official records seem to keep it rather low. National Vital Statistics Reports
And Even those deaths seem to be made worse by pre-existing conditions.
So, drink your orange juice, wash your hands,blame your local congress if you have to. Don't lick somebody who is contagious. You'll be all right. Condolences to those families who have suffered from it.

And hey, at least we no longer have to hear about octo-mom, peanut butter or GM.

Meh, take more vitamin C, don't take stupid risks. this too shall pass. I don't think that the annual deaths from this would be significantly higher than at any other year. Having said that, Iam not trying to minimalize the deaths of those that have died from this or any other flu. I am sorry for those families.

May keep up on the news and be a bit cautious. but not going to panic. seems like some areas are freaking out too much.in our area they closed down a school for day because one student came back from a vacation in Mexico. she had not signs of being sick but a whole school was closed. I will try and be aware but i am not locking myself and family in the house.

Now that the Obama administration has elevated "science" to its proper place in America, they find a crisis that they cannot fail to promote. Certainly we should close the border with Mexico but Obama's teleprompter helped him explain that closing the border would be like closing the barn door after all the animals are out. The unspoken but obvious truth is that there are millions of animals still in the barn and they are still in danger of contracting this, if, in fact, it is a serious problem. I'm a bit skeptical when the administration operates by the motto, "never let a crisis go to waste. "

But with geniuses like Malaprop Biden and Janet Napolitano advising us of the right things to do, why would anyone be cynical? I take precautions every day to prevent flu contagion, and so should you. Are you certain you need a president to tell you how to accomplish this? And, please don't call it swine flu anymore, like anti-terror activities there's a less offensive way to characterize it now. Importance to me: a weak 2. Importance as an event of 2009: probably a 1.

I hear medical professionals are just saying that it's basically on par w/regular flu strains. I don't get it. It just seems like people get so paranoid so easily these days. What's next? an oatmeal emergency? I can see it now, Wilfred Brimley and the Quaker Oats guy w/a mask on.

I'm old enough to remember the last outbreak in the mid 70. We all learned to wash our hand, and cover our mouths when coughing then too.

It has the potential to become a 5 star event but the situation could go either way.

What is currently happening is that healtcare and emergency preparedness officials are taking appropriately pre-planned measures to attempt to mitigate the impacts of a wide spread outbreak and assess whether those measures are having the anticipated impact. In two or three weeks from now we may decide that a combination of such measures and a large dose of good luck resulted in this being a non-story and a big waste of everyones time and energy. That would be a good thing.

There is potential that either the virus mutates and becomes more severe or takes hold in a pivitol location that is ill-prepared for it. In that case we could be looking at major global health/social/economic impacts.

The media is doing what the media does, trying to turn documentary facts into a narrative story to make for interesting viewing/reading. The public needs to sift through that and find the important information and thankfully the developed world has access to the web as a tool in that process. In some high risk places that is not the case.

UPDATED 4/30/09: This just in! President teleprompter, Barack Hussein, tells us to wash our hands, and cover our mouths when we cough. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Oh, yeah. VP Blabbermouth tells us to stay off airplanes and subways. How is that gonna work?

ORIGINAL COMMENT--4/28/09: Just when I thought that the great peanut butter plague was gonna get us all, along comes Swine Flu 2009.

Some of you might remember Swine Flu, 1976. A young soldier died of the flu in New Jersey, and the resulting media frenzy caused the fit to hit the shan. Fear stalked the land.

President Ford called for action. Congress responded by passing a swine flu bill doing this and that. Since the President couldn't veto it, the Democrats loaded it up with a whole bunch of ear-marks, 1970's style.

The drums started to beat for a massive vaccination of the entire country. Congress dragged its feet. The drug companies stated that if they were going to mass produce vaccine for a government program, they wanted immunity from all the lawsuits that would follow. Congress balked at this. President Ford went on the tube and declared that all the upcoming dead people could thank Congress. Congress caved in and passed the immunity bill.

A bunch of old people got vaccinated and some croaked. Even though there was no connection between the vaccine and the croaking, the media kept up the din. Scientists stuck their heads in holes, ostrich style.

Then Legionnaire's Disease also struck that summer. More panic.

About half the American people stated that they WOULDN'T be vaccinated. President Ford who was going to reap the glory for saving the American people from certain death reaped all the grief and damage from this laughable boondoggle. The end result was that the whole thing never materialized when flu season hit.

This strain of flu has caused a decent amount of deaths, which is significant in my mind. I can understand the need for the media to broadcast this story and remind people to take proper precautions in regard to their health. However, there was doom and gloom forecast for SARS, the bird flu, and mad-cow disease, and I have yet to encounter anybody who was infected or affected by them.

Personally I've been wearing a mask at times in public because of my medical condition. I get looks at times and I bet people are wondering whats going on that I have to wear a mask. Today I felt like I got more stares than usual, and I'm sure many of them were thinking, "That dude must be scared about that swine flu!"

I do think that people should be a little concerned on this subject. It seems like you turn on the news and there are a few more that have contracted this sickness. But then on the other hand, people have to realize the media can hype things way out of control. Sometimes I wonder if things like this are being used as scare tactics, kind of like Y2K. Although it had nothing to do with a sickness, it was a similar situation.

At this point hard to say. Nothing to take lightly though. Influenza is remarkably adaptable and mutates quickly. Those of us who know a little history are aware that this disease tore the world a new asshole in 1919-20.

That being said, the hype about this is getting a little hysterical. The revelation that the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level from three to four (on a scale of six) had some media outlets hyperventilating that it was the "highest alert level ever issued." True enough, but it declines to observe that WHO only initated the system of alert levels in 2005.

To put some things in perspective. The Spanish Influenza pandemic mentioned above accounted for somewhere between 20 and 50 million deaths world wide. Horrifying figures, undoubtedly, but here are some others. It is estimated that about 28 per cent of North Americans contracted the disease, and the 2.5 percent of those who contracted it died. This makes it the most lethal flu outbreak in recorded history.

But look at those numbers from the other side for a moment. It means that 97.5 per cent of those who contracted it survived and recovered. And it also means that 72 percent did not contract it at all. So if the current Swine Flu turns out to be an exact repeat of the Spanish Flu, the chances are 7 in 10 that you won't catch it, and if you did 9 in 10 that you'd survive.

The point of the above is not to minimize the potential tragedy of a pandemic, or to ignore precautions, but merely to advise against hysteria.

Scary thing is, they say mostly totally healthy people are being affected. Even people that have been no where near pigs. One doctor on the news recommended just to be safe, to start washing your hands more often then usual.