We(New York City Department of Health)'re expecting this thing to grow exponentially over the next few days since transmission of the virus between the students first diagnosed and their family has been confirmed. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be particularly strong with all cases showing only "mild" illness. There was apparently a death of a 24 month old in Texas from this, but that isn't uncommon with any flu.

The reason for the big concern is that this is a new strain. We don't have a vaccine for it and it moves from human to human quickly and easily. Should this one mutate and become stronger (more deadly), we won't be able to do much to stop it.

Personally, I'm not worried about it. There are 9.1 million people in this city (latest estimate) and only 44 cases have been confirmed as of last night. I have better odds of winning the $200+ million megamillion lottery Friday than getting this flu.

And for those who haven't read it, Steven King's The Stand is a great read.
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An article on the news was saying that if you were sick in the last few weeks, you might have had the swine flu and gotten over it already.

They really put it into perspective showing how 30,000 or more people die from the flu every year.

Hopefully, this year's flu shot will include the swine flu.
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+1 on "The Stand" :-)
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They just had a reported case of it at Branham Highschool, it's about 3 blocks from my house. School is closed for a week.
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They may cancel fans from attending the Spanish GP in a week because of this. 70K fans with worthless tickets...
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They're missing the point.

The normal flu kills the sick, the very young and the elderly.

The 1918 flu and this one kill the healthy.

The difference is not insignificant.
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No, it's down right SCARY!
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Then again, most people who have contracted this one had only mild flulike symptoms. Many people may have had it already and not been counted in the stats.
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Are you serious? This has reached hysteric levels.
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Yeah man, I'm serious.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_122527...e=most_emailed

:-)
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I heard cigar smoke is an effective preventative measure.
We all smoke and nobody gets it.
All I need is a control who doesn't smoke to lick a pig to see if, in fact, they do get it.
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Swine Flu is a good name for a band.
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Better than H1N1 Mexican Pig FLu:-)
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According to the numbers that I saw out of Mexico, it has 5-7.5% mortality. However, at this point, the data are suspect, as you point out.
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All I can say....

DON'T DO THIS!!!

Image
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:-) you can't catch it tonguing pigs
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I know, I know, I just love this pic of you Per. :-):-)
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I'm not blonde
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He wasn't talking about the blonde, I think...
:-)
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novel flu II electricbugaloo
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