"Don't vaccinate me, bro".

[nowaitbutlisten]

There is seriously something fishy going on with swine flu. WHO are the 159 people in Mexico who have died? How old are they? Why are there no details?! WHY are people dying if it's not unlike the regular flu? How is it different? Am I totally uninformed or are we not being told everything? I seriously feel like I'm only being told to wash my hands

Comments

[ironzapatista]

Swine flu's been around before, in 1976; the only reason nobody's died in the States yet is because we have decent doctors and hospitals. The only U.S. death so far has been a 23-month old child, most likely due to a lack of a fully-developed immune system. It sucks that people in Mexico are dying, and it's probably due to lack of available healthcare and related resources, though I can't speculate on the ages of the victims.
On the issue of the spread of information: We probably won't hear everything that's going on in the rest of the world, unless it's another "First World" nation like the U.S. It's bullshit, but it's how the media does business. We're only uninformed because news sources aren't giving us the information you want in the first place.

[beckon_you_on]

people die every week from regular flu. the world is freaking out because it's a new strain and they're afraid it'll become resistant to medication we have (tons of) available.. ridiculous, really. 1 person out of how many millions in this country has died?

[oblio_doblio]

The CDC has a page on info and prevention stuff.

I don't think they're reporting much more than 'wash-your-hands' because there's no real story there. Some people are getting sick and most are getting better... just like your run-of-the-mill flu. Unless the mortality rate jumps up around the world and not just in Mexico, this all seems like an Onion story. "Flu makes people sick before making full recovery'.

I'm gonna guess that more people are going to die driving home from work this week in car accidents than people who die from swine flu over the same period.