WHO Raises Swine Flu Threat Level

Solarch writes "Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, the WHO raised the pandemic threat level for H1N1 "swine flu" to 5. Global media outlets(such as CNN, Fox News, and the BBC) preempted normal broadcast coverage and immediately published stories on their websites. To clarify, the WHO's elevation is mainly a sign to governments that the virus is spreading quickly and that steps should be taken on a governmental level to stage supplies and medicines to combat a possible pandemic. Unfortunately, broadcast coverage focused on phrases like 'pandemic imminent' (CNN marquee). In other news, patient zero, the medical term for the initial human vector of a disease, has been tentatively identified in Mexico."

Comments

I'll repeat what I heard elsewhere

[Sycraft-fu]

"Citation needed."

Seriously, I see Internet doomsdayers saying this, but I don't see the CDC saying this. So, can you provide a link to a reputable source for this? I'm genuinely interested in reading one. If not, then perhaps you should stop spreading it.

Re:I'll repeat what I heard elsewhere

[Knara]

Mod parent up. "Cytokine storm" is the new Internet meme lately.

With the grand WHO total of deaths being caused by H1N12009 being EIGHT, and the most well documented death so far being a 23 year old, the whole idea that this is killing otherwise healthy (a BIG assumption, this is Mexico, not the US, the health care system and environmental conditions in Mexico City is not very good in the former and absolutely terrible in the latter case) adults is isn't founded at all.

Re:Please let it be!!

[V50]

Yeah, there's certainly a section of the media that wants terrible news to happen. I don't think they consciously or overtly want stuff to happen, but deep inside, I do think that part of them does.

I think it's partially human nature though. I've found myself sort of bugged at times by part of me that wants a war to break out, or a pandemic to happen, or the stock market to tank, etc. I think it comes from oftentimes looking at news as fiction that happens far away. And for the most part it's true. If a war breaks out in Africa, for instance, for the majority of North Americans or whatnot, it may as well be fiction for how little it actually affects them.

tldr; When it doesn't directly harm them, IMO, people often look at news as fiction, and want a more exciting outcome.

And some just don't understand.

[Nethead]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/egypt-orders-slaughter-of-all-pigs-over-swine-flu-1676090.html

Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu... Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.

Yeah, what's the price of pork in a vastly flooded market. Other stories on the subject report riots by the pig farmers and also note that the WHO says that you can't catch it from eating pork. This is more a case of the non-pork eating religious majority using this as an excuse to crap on the pork eating religious minority (and 'unclean' pig farmers.)

From a Hot Zone

[mathx314]

Allow me to explain my bias before embarking on this rant: I currently attend University of Delaware. At present there are 10 unconfirmed cases among the student body. Not a big number (total student number is ~13,000), but diseases do have a tendency to spread quickly among student populations.

What bothers me about this isn't that people are overreacting, which they are to a large extent. I don't feel the need to wander around with a surgical mask and I'm right in the middle of a hot zone. Rather, what bothers me is that people are underreacting. There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction that says that swine flu won't cause any sort of devastation; that it's not something to worry about.

The fact of the matter is that while they're probably right, there's no reason not to take simple precautions. So long as this is going on, I'll make sure to was my hands with soap and water after using the bathroom, to try to avoid sick people, and to go to health services if I start showing flu-like symptoms. On the other hand, I hear plenty of people at school saying that they don't care, that if they get it it's "just the flu." I see a lot of people here on /. saying that this is just a media circus and just for drug companies to capitalize on. Maybe you guys are right, but what if you aren't?

As I said, I'm biased since I'm in a hot zone, but I'd rather be safe about this than contract it.

Still Unknown Case Fatality Rate

[Baldrson]

There are basically 3 regimes of Case Fatality Rate separated by about a factor of 10 each:

1) more than 1%
2) .1% to 1%
3) less than .1%

We still don't know which range we're dealing with and, uh, like, it matters.

All it would take is to focus on a standard sample like Mexico City hospital interns, process their swabs STAT and count the deaths so far.

Seriously, folks, where are the adults?

Re:Semi-Pandemic

[hurfy]

And this is the ONLY real story here.

If this is an average flu season at least a couple dozen kids in the US have died already from the standard A/B/whatever strains vs 1 for the swine flu.

I'll leave you to figure out i gave an very conservative guess according to the CDC. Mexico i have no clue.

It is still much more dangerous to cross the street for lunch, how about a banner to Stop for Pedestrians :(