The flu

And so as explained in that comic I drew, I may get to have the pleasure of experimenting this newfangled flu thing. Or, maybe not - but either way hours of fun in perspective! For now I'm just lethargic and miserable. Probably gonna call in sick tomorrow cause I'm just gonna infect everyone otherwise with all my coughing. Swine flu is just another hyped up, pathetic little illness thinking its hard. I challenge it to kill me.

It seems to not be killing healthy people with health care. If you are poor, have a bad diet, and from the slum in mexico city, that is another story. Get some tamiflu though. And stay home so you don't spread it. It won't kill you, but the flu sure does suck!

Was the dude on the bike wearing a Sombrero?
Get well soon!

As a child we used to make fun of the Japanese during flu season. On TV we would see that many of them were wearing what looked like surgical masks. I don't know if it was sick people who wore them, or people who didn't want to get sick. Now I think its a pretty good idea.

I was in Japanese shipyard once, and the yard workers had ballcaps with chinstraps. It looked odd at first, but the Americans often had a gust of wind blow their caps off, and then they had to navigate the ladders and stairs to go to the bottom and fetch your wet hat.



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Mask make sence, except they don't work. GMA had a report on them yesterday, and explained they were useless. the airborn virus is much smaller than anything the masks can filter.


there are 300 million Americans, there are 147 cases of Swine flu. Zero fatalities in the US. By all accounts, this is a very, very mild flu season.

Acording to Wikipedia, "Typically, in a year's normal two flu seasons (one per hemisphere), there are between three and five million cases of severe illness and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide"


With that in mind, I'm not worried about Swine flue yet. come back when a few million are dead, then i'll start to worry.

Drunkskunk, did you know that in 1918 there was a very mild form of the flu in Spring, it died out almost in the Summer and come the Autumn (Fall - a much nicer word) it came back in a deadly form that eventually killed 50 million. Fingers crossed.

paultrafalgar said:

...Fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Are you hoping for it?
Just kidding. Millions dead is serious buisnes, but there isn't much we can ac tualy do diffrent from what we should already be doing. Ever wonder how many people end up with eye herpies from not propperly washing after using a public restroom?
I never did, but someone had to go and tell me.

The thing is, there is nothing about this case of the flu to be worried about yet. Its not particurlay deadly, or even severe, its not spreading quickly, and there seems to be no indication of it getting worse.

It could have been bad, H1N1 is a strain that has shown tendancies to be deadly, and it rarely infects humans, but wide spread panic over a few runny noses is comic.

Drunkskunk said:

Mask make sence, except they don't work. GMA had a report on them yesterday, and explained they were useless. the airborn virus is much smaller than anything the masks can filter.

Click to expand...

The viruses aren't typically just "airborne", they're usually attached to saliva droplets floating in the air which is something that can't pass through a mask. However, once the saliva dries/gets absorbed, I'm not entirely sure if the virus is "glued", so to say, to the mask. If not, than I can imagine that masks wouldn't be effective for long periods of time, ssuming the inrushing air molecules effectively "suck" the viruses.

But my guess is that the viruses typically embed themself into the fabric. I would definitely throw it away after your first use.

Aw, that sucks. If I got it, so far all it's done is made me sleep like crap. Oh well, it could be worse.

swbluto said:

Drunkskunk said:

Mask make sence, except they don't work. GMA had a report on them yesterday, and explained they were useless. the airborn virus is much smaller than anything the masks can filter.

Click to expand...

The viruses aren't typically just "airborne", they're usually attached to saliva droplets floating in the air which is something that can't pass through a mask. However, once the saliva dries/gets absorbed, I'm not entirely sure if the virus is "glued", so to say, to the mask. If not, than I can imagine that masks wouldn't be effective for long periods of time, ssuming the inrushing air molecules effectively "suck" the viruses.

But my guess is that the viruses typically embed themself into the fabric. I would definitely throw it away after your first use.

Click to expand...

Yeah

I was going to make the same point, the mask will stop the airborne saliva.

If you have ever noticed, even when people talk, they can be spewing droplets of saliva into the air.

Deron.

Wash your hands before picking your nose to lessen your chances of getting any sort of disease. . . and then eat the boogers to boost your immunity.

"Be careful while reading health books, you might die of a misprint."
- Mark Twain

Now I understand Ypedal's avatar!

Lucky me, I don't get the flu nor even a cold of more than two days duration;. the reason?

SLE. For this stroke of chance, too, I don't get HIV or cancer.

Autoimmune disorders can be a blessing after all:
the hyperactive immune system prevents almost all infections;
I never get any infection. Cut fingers, toes, never go infected.


-----
Elizabeth, born 1896, dead at 103, witnessed as a nurse, the 1918 flu pandemic. Related at ninety-nine: "It was terrible. People were dropping like flies, before we could even put them to a bed, in the hallways, on cots. The doctor who deputized me because I was immune, was, himself, dead one week later. It was terrible."

I will not get a flu shot because it might stimulate my immune system (my guess) and cause a relapse of SLE symptoms.


Mathurin: I bet you got the flu from a horse, not a pig.