VERY important relevant SWINE FLU information. PLEASE listen.

[DuckyBoys]

Comming form a science perspective - they are in a panic becasue they know it will mutate. It is mutates it could be a repeat of 1918. They think that if they develop this vaccine based on the current version it will protect people, or lessen the symptoms, of the mutant version.

It may - it may not.

Everyone knows that the last time they ushed a swine flu vaccine it ended bad, so now the people are in a panic over the vaccine.

Personally, I won't touch that vaccine. I wish I had been exposed to the swine flu when it was going around so I could get some natural anti-bodies.

BUT - I homeschool my kids, live in the country, and work form home so I can afford to feel like I won't be put at risk.

For parents who work in a large city and send your children to school this is a BIG decision. I am not saying to get the vaccine at all - I'm just saying they have very valid reasons for wanting you to get the vaccine and you have very valid reasons why you don't trust them.

BTW - very good website about 1918 Influenza outbreak (the hoemschooler in me!):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/

We will have to wait and see I guess...

 

[rizq]

Quote:
Ditto.

 

[Rosalind]

Hey, you know what would do a LOT to cut down on the spread of any flu whatsoever?

Unlimited paid sick days from work. Seriously. Except most American employers will never, never do it.

My employer does in fact have, effectively, unlimited sick days. No, I'm not kidding: Everyone pays about $1.20/paycheck into what's called Short Term Disability Insurance and another $0.75/paycheck into what they call Long Term Disability Insurance. The short term covers absences from 1 week - 6 months and the long term covers absences 6 months - 2 years. Of course, after your FMLA leave runs out they are entitled to hire someone else to do the job, but your paycheck & medical benefits are still paid out of that insurance policy. After 2 years, you're supposed to go on SSI. You need a doctor's letter and so forth, but HR handles the bit between the doctor writing you a letter and the insurance paying up. There is also a company nurse, and yes, I can testify that she does send you home when you are ill with so much as a sniffle. Yes, work still gets done (we are one of the most productive companies in our field), and when people abuse the policy they are indeed fired when they can't produce a doctor's note. But overall it works, I don't get sick from co-workers anymore.

When I worked at companies that had limited sick days or didn't pay for sick days, I was always catching whatever they had. You could guarantee that you'd use up all your sick days and a few vacation days being ill from whatever form of plague was going around. People would come to work with pneumonia to try to prove they were the mostest dedicated worker on earth or something, and then half the staff would be out sick. They'd imagine that this proved they were the best employees, on account of their co-workers weren't willing to tough it out, conveniently forgetting that they were but one middle manager running a tiny department and they couldn't cover for the absences of Accounting, Personnel and Marketing all by themselves. And so productivity was cursed every flu season.

It's just one thing. A simple thing. At the end of the year, it's a cheaper solution, too--you can quickly identify the slackers who take advantage and give them pink slips, the insurance policy is paying the salary so you effectively don't have to pay for these extended sick days, you keep illness to a minimum in the community. But most executives can't wrap their heads around it. Unlimited sick days?!?!? Teh horrorz!!!

 

[rancher hicks]

It isn't likely there will be a repeat of the 1918 situation. Unless we all become as ignorant as they were then.
The medical profession has learned so much that it is not likely there will be a repeat of 1918.
The public is also better educated about disease than they were in 1918.
Many people died from many diseases out of sheer ignorance. Looking back on the medical treatments there are so many things they no longer do because they now know it was unscientific.

 

[silkiechicken]

People don't go about cutting their wrists when they are sick to bleed out the bad blood anymore... This whole swine flu thing is blown up by media and if you take precautions as you would for regular flu, you should be fine. Millions die of plain old diarrhea every year, mostly children. Solved by clean water that people don't have access too. Treatment is pretty much Gatorade... but they don't have it and so they die.

Don't live in a bubble, expose yourself to low levels of everything, so when something bad comes along, you'll have a partial immunity to it. Most viruses and diseases are not emerging diseases and just forms of the same old thing that goes around and around.

 

[chickenbottom]

Quote:
exactly i dont think that we have anything to worry about if we stay clean and in gods hands.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
So, the reason why they have 2 of my Paramedic husband's co-workers in quarantine because they were exposed to a confirmed case of swine flu is because.... ????

I hate to be a stick in the mud, but the swine flu pandemic is totally NOT a joke. My husband had a staff meeting about this and they are requesting that the media tone it down to keep folks from panicking.

Sorry, but I believe it.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Thw swine flu hit my office, luckily I escaped that bullet. But I can tell you it was far more than a common cold!!! The 4 people that had it were sick for 3 weeks. Upper respirtory problems, headaches, fever, etc.

Yes they survived and the media does play it up like it is Ebola. But it is more than a common cold.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
So, the reason why they have 2 of my Paramedic husband's co-workers in quarantine because they were exposed to a confirmed case of swine flu is because.... ????

I hate to be a stick in the mud, but the swine flu pandemic is totally NOT a joke. My husband had a staff meeting about this and they are requesting that the media tone it down to keep folks from panicking.

Sorry, but I believe it.

I am sorry your husband is in forced quarantine. But the reason is a presidential executive order, the same one that shuts down schools if a child coughs or has a fever. IMHO it is nothing more than government and media hyping an opportunity. Yes it exists, but so far it has done nothing but make both branches of government(executive and media) look like a joke.

 

[tea]

I don't like to listen to the news anymore. CNN said over a billion people will die from H1N1..

I believe H1N1 is a serious matter, just like everything else out there, but the media likes to strew things to scare people.