I am Darkness, I am the Knight, I. Am. Swine flu.

[Sullivan]

The 'H1N1 virus', 'swine flu', or whatever you'd like to call it, is in my opinion, ridiculous.

A Cornell student has died of complications related to H1N1 flu. The College sends its condolences to the student's family, friends, and the entire Cornell community.

The death serves as a reminder of the potential of this virus, especially among people with other health conditions.

Symptoms of flu-like illness include a fever of 100 degrees with cough or sore throat. Other symptoms may include tiredness, runny nose, nasal congestion, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should self-isolate until symptom-free for at least 24 hours. For most people, the flu can be treated without seeing a doctor, but if your symptoms are severe, you should seek medical attention.

Flu-like illness has been identified at TC3. We ask that everyone does their part in helping stop the spread of the virus through good prevention practices. Hand washing, sneeze and cough hygiene, avoiding touching your face with your hands, and social distancing will all help stop the spread of this virus.

That's the e-mail my college sent out to on-campus students. Cornell is a college about fifteen minutes away from us (us being TC3, which is the college I go to). I have spent almost every weekend since I got here walking on, around, or past Cornell campus, and I cannot see the big deal.

More people die of regular flu than die of H1N1. It's basically less dangerous flu that spreads faster, so people are more scared of it.

I implore you to read this for my further feelings on the subject, since my opinion basically mirrors this one:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/...=swine_flu

Any thoughts?

[Alexander Trafford]

Scientists are worried about H1N1 mutating this fall, which i believe is the pattern that every disastrous flu epidemic has followed in recordable history. They start in late winter/early spring, become unimportant during the summer months, then mutate in the fall for a terrible winter. Of course, this hasn't happened in a long, long while, but that is what all the fuss is about, since it has already mutated once i think.

[Vad]

On a related note, I find it slightly humorous how America and other heavily developed countries are worried about the Flu, when in some parts of Africa people are dropping from Malaria and shit we've eliminated years ago. (AID's not included)

To be perfectly honest when they first came out with the symptoms back in Feb, I had been out for a week from school with the exact cocktail the news was listing for H1N1. I remember telling Piper that I was stuck in bed and unable post.

[Josh]

H1N1 is a very dangerous virus.

It's been noted as being very unstable, and no one has a natural immunity to it, so it's highly infectious. For the time being, most cases have been rather mild, however the Spanish flu showed up with a mild wave of infection before a second wave initiated later on during the flu season and killed about 50,000,000~100,000,000.

To say that the H1N1 virus is being blown out of proportion is, to say the least, ignorant. It's like those people who advocate that vaccines don't work, or aren't necessary because the diseases are all but gone now.

Or those that say SARS was overblown, when in reality SARS didn't become a pandemic because of the aggressive response that it was greeted with.

[Sage]

Dimitri's post is horribly ignorant.

It's actually a more dangerous version of the flu that spreads at pandemic levels. It's more persistent and it travels deeper into the lungs, causing more potential damage. More people die of the regular flu - for now - because it's been around longer, and regular flu favors people with weak immune systems. H1N1 is totally capable of hospitalizing an otherwise perfectly healthy person.

What the WHO are worried about isn't the fact that it's just a really scary flu (although that's certainly cause for concern, as flu pandemics have killed millions in the past), it's the fact that this virus mutates so unbelievably fast. It could become extremely fatal. It doesn't take much of a stretch for something that changes so fast to rapidly become an uncontrollable problem.

EDIT: Thanks, Josh.

[Pinky]

Its highly contagious nature is the crux of the problem. The more it spreads, the more likely it is to mutate. Given the fact that it easily traveled across the continent during the summer season, which means we can't simply wait it out, it's only going to become more problematic during the winter season when people traditionally spend the more time grouped together in closed environments.

[Kaden]

Yeah, H1N1 shouldn't be taken lightly.

Other people have already said why.

[Josh]

It should be noted that what the WHO is recommending, as well as the Universities, is to take common sense procedures when sick and in public. Really, they shouldn't have to remind you to cover your fucking mouth when you cough or sneeze as well as wash your hands.

Also following these procedures puts an environmental pressure on the virus to become a more benign illness.

[Sullivan]

I would just like to state, for the record, that I don't think I'm ignorant. Allow me to present arguments from leading french virologists to support my opinion.

"Of course the virus could become more virulent, but that’s not the opinion that has been expressed by a majority of virologists," stated Bernard Debré, a leading french virologist.

He was backed by minister of health Roseylne Bachelot, whose opinion is decidedly that many governments are overreacting to media pressure.

Which would be my opinion. Almost everything that the public thinks they know about H1N1 is what's being spread quicker than the virus itself across the media. Every news station has forced down their viewers throats that H1N1 is incredibly dangerous, when in fact, the seasonal flu IS killing more people than H1N1.

While I can respect your opinions that it is wise to be cautious of something that could BECOME very dangerous, to call me ignorant for thinking the media is overreacting to something that is barely dangerous at all now is downright insulting. I have never disrespected any of you in such a way, and I would absolutely love if people could muster the civility to realize that I have a reason for thinking the way that I do.

I would also like to state that, for the record, my area has been hit harder by H1N1 than almost any in the country. My area contains most of the recorded cases of H1N1 in my entire state, and most people here share my opinion. More people around here have died of seasonal flu than H1N1, and we have more cases of H1N1 than most states in our country.

Is that to say I haven't taken precaution? No. I received a flu vaccine at the beginning of this month due to a suggestion at my public health office within my college.

To call me ignorant is just downright disrespectful.

[Psyren]

I would just like to state, for the record, that I don't think I'm ignorant. Allow me to present arguments from leading french virologists to support my opinion.

"Of course the virus could become more virulent, but that’s not the opinion that has been expressed by a majority of virologists," stated Bernard Debré, a leading french virologist.

He was backed by minister of health Roseylne Bachelot, whose opinion is decidedly that many governments are overreacting to media pressure.

Which would be my opinion. Almost everything that the public thinks they know about H1N1 is what's being spread quicker than the virus itself across the media. Every news station has forced down their viewers throats that H1N1 is incredibly dangerous, when in fact, the seasonal flu IS killing more people than H1N1.

While I can respect your opinions that it is wise to be cautious of something that could BECOME very dangerous, to call me ignorant for thinking the media is overreacting to something that is barely dangerous at all now is downright insulting. I have never disrespected any of you in such a way, and I would absolutely love if people could muster the civility to realize that I have a reason for thinking the way that I do.

I would also like to state that, for the record, my area has been hit harder by H1N1 than almost any in the country. My area contains most of the recorded cases of H1N1 in my entire state, and most people here share my opinion. More people around here have died of seasonal flu than H1N1, and we have more cases of H1N1 than most states in our country.

Is that to say I haven't taken precaution? No. I received a flu vaccine at the beginning of this month due to a suggestion at my public health office within my college.

To call me ignorant is just downright disrespectful.

Word Man...Word..
Your entitled to your oppinion and i respect your oppinion. Say whatcha gotta say homie. Just dont go kanye on anybody.

[Kaden]

To call me ignorant is just downright disrespectful.

More or less disrespectful than trivializing and demeaning something that people are actually suffering from?

[Sullivan]

More. Disrespectful like making jokes about someone's death, like what sprung up after Michael Jackson died.

I don't need to be guilted. I realize that people are suffering, but I'm not trivializing, I'm debunking. I'm not saying that no one is suffering. I'm simply stating that more people are suffering and dying from seasonal flu.

[Kaden]

Disrespectful like making jokes about someone's death, like what sprung up after Michael Jackson died.

Interesting. That's pretty much the level I put your post on.

Oh well. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, right?

[Sullivan]

I would just like to state that the majority rules case does not always apply. Because you all agree and I don't, does not necessarily make me wrong.

The point I was trying to put across with the reference to the Michael Jackson's death thread should be more clear if you actually look back on it.

http://cdbzrpg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26221

There's another place where I disagreed with the majority, this time, by saying that making jokes about someone's death was inappropriate and disrespectful. Many of the same of you are now calling my opinion ignorant because it is not the same as yours.

I think that should put the level of my 'disrespect' in proper perspective.

[Kaden]

It's an opinion, yo. There's nothing to prove.

[Sage]

More. Disrespectful like making jokes about someone's death, like what sprung up after Michael Jackson died.

I don't need to be guilted. I realize that people are suffering, but I'm not trivializing, I'm debunking. I'm not saying that no one is suffering. I'm simply stating that more people are suffering and dying from seasonal flu.

Your post was ignorant. The title and your demeanor trivialize something which is to many people a very painful situation, and you made several sweeping claims with absolutely nothing to back them until your subsequent post.

My calling you out wasn't an insult. It's just blunt honesty.

[Tyr]

This thread is laying down the wood for a burning fire, just get back on track and stop calling each other ignorant. Calling other people ignorant is ignorant.

I, as a Dane, dread swine flu because Denmark's main export is swine. Other than that, the doctors here keep saying that one shouldn't dread swine flu as long as they don't have anything else and are basically healthy. I was lying with flu symptoms a good weeks ago and my doctor even just shrugged me off because it really is just a tougher flu that can finish you off if you have other complications. He also added that if I infected anyone else, while I might have had a really bad flu, they would get a lesser version of it, although I'm not sure how that works.

[Rafael]

Swine Flu= overhyped nonsense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_swine_flu_outbreak

So what, 500 people in the US have died. Yes, this is a bad thing, but compared to even, say, the regular flu, or drunk driving, what have you, it's an extremely small number in the scheme of things, and the media is inflating it because they have nothing else interesting to talk about apparently.

Like the above case(which oddly is missing a much more detailed section about the vaccine program causing more deaths than the disease that I read previously) and the laughable SARS "pandemic" a while back, it'll blow over and then the news will find something equally frivolous to blow out of proportion to keep people afraid and watching.

As is, nothing to worry about. To be fair:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but it is estimated that 10% to 20% of those who were infected died. With about a third of the world population infected, this case-fatality ratio means that 3% to 6% of the entire global population died

On a brighter note, I for one really wish I could get me some of that, as it's a mandatory week of sick time off for me, or three days after symptoms fade, whichever is longer.

And yes, as usual Maddox hits it pretty on the nose.

[Psyren]

true orion

altho i dont want a case of it myself lol i enjoy working

[Rafael]

Eh, I get payed whether I work or not, so it's no skin off my back if I spend it at home playing WoW instead of actual work if it makes my superiors feel safe with their hand sanitizer.