No, but I srsly have swine flu. No. Guys, are you listening to me? I HAVE SWINE FLU OMG. LISTEN TO ME.

Me too.

I woke up this morning in the garden, sneezing. There was a hole in the ground under the tree and I'd found a truffle.

WHO didn't see this coming?

The only thing this whole flu/SARS readyness thing has taught me is to lie when I go to the hospital about having a cough, so they won't make me wear a damn mask.

What a swine flu "ground zero" may look like:

Chinchillazilla: No, but I srsly have swine flu. No. Guys, are you listening to me? I HAVE SWINE FLU OMG. LISTEN TO ME.

You sound like every third patient I have these days. All calling the ambulance because they KNOW they have the swine flu.

It's starting to die down a little now, thankfully. But man, was it ever annoying. shiat, man, you don't even have a fever. Calm the hell down.

Gotta love the bourgeoisie.

Swine flu is the perfect distraction from the power struggle with car company investors and banks. It's a full on assault on those evil rich people, the Free and the Constitution. Contract Law is under attack, private businesses and whole industries are being targeted for takeover by this Liberal government. Wake up people..geez.

They should be informed they are suffering from chronic hypochondriasis and the cure is hot coffee enemas, spinal taps, and more cowbell.

GaryPDX: Swine flu is the perfect distraction from the power struggle with car company investors and banks. It's a full on assault on those evil rich people, the Free and the Constitution. Contract Law is under attack, private businesses and whole industries are being targeted for takeover by this Liberal government. Wake up people..geez.

Swine flu was created by the black man in retaliation for us white folk creating the AIDS... I'm just sayin, when Bush I, Clinton, Bush II (all white me) were President, no one had ever heard of swine flu... Now with Obama- BAM.

Ha. Just wait'll it's all free.

whatabrotherknow: What a swine flu "ground zero" may look like:

Be suspicious of any man that keeps a pig farm.

The emergency room patients only doubled, and they are having a hard time dealing with it? What if we had a SERIOUS crisis? If the wheels are coming off with this, methinks they need better triage and some guys with guns perhaps.

Shadowknight: Chinchillazilla: No, but I srsly have swine flu. No. Guys, are you listening to me? I HAVE SWINE FLU OMG. LISTEN TO ME.

You sound like every third patient I have these days. All calling the ambulance because they KNOW they have the swine flu.

It's starting to die down a little now, thankfully. But man, was it ever annoying. shiat, man, you don't even have a fever. Calm the hell down.

When the outbreak maps start really filling out through the country this week, you're going to start seeing a LOT more panic. We're also not going to be seeing the TRUE amount of cases in official reports, as there will be too many people flooding the hospital to test. That's when the perceived death rate will go up as only the more serious cases are tested. What we've seen in mx city is going to be here shortly.

This is totally a repeat from 1976.

I've been sick as a dog since Thursday, but I have no intention of seeing the doctor.
I'm taking Mucinex, Claritan, nasal spray, Motrin, and cough drops. I'm doing just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeee.

/Those really are what I'm using.

Number of confirmed cases has risen from 160 to 226 in the US in the last day. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Alabama 1
Arizona 18
California 26
Colorado 4
Connecticut 2
Delaware 10
Florida 3
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Iowa 1
Kansas 2
Kentucky* 1
Massachusetts 7
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Missouri 1
Nebraska 1
Nevada 1
New Hampshire 1
New Jersey 7
New Mexico 1
New York 63
Ohio 3
Rhode Island 1
South Carolina 15
Tennessee 1
Texas 40
Utah 1
Virginia 3
Wisconsin 3

jbrooks544: The emergency room patients only doubled, and they are having a hard time dealing with it? What if we had a SERIOUS crisis? If the wheels are coming off with this, methinks they need better triage and some guys with guns perhaps.

Usually places that operate at a constant loss tend to be understaffed as it is. Most places in the country couldn't afford to keep crisis-level staff at all times, even in the best economy.

Walk-in emergency room visits from people with a cough? I guarantee not a damn one of them are insured. And all of them will be skipping out on the bill. The insured call their doctor and say "hey, do you have 15 minutes say, Wednesday, you could work me in?" Then take a few paid sick days off work.

Hospitals close down all the damn time because of illegals sucking up what little funds they already have. You add a bunch of hypochondriac nitwits to the bunch and you're going to drag down the system even more.

Quarantine all incoming cases of "OMG I ate some undercooked bacon and now I have a sneeze!"

Isolate and treat and positive cases with chicken soup and a few Cipro with a Sprite chaser.

False alarms are to be told they are infected, the infection is fatal, and that their body will have to be burned immediately to prevent a pandemic.

RadicalMiddle: I've been sick as a dog since Thursday, but I have no intention of seeing the doctor.
I'm taking Mucinex, Claritan, nasal spray, Motrin, and cough drops. I'm doing just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeee.

/Those really are what I'm using.

I stick with large quantities of vodka and orange juice. Then I turn the heat up and get really loopy.

What is the ER going to do for anyone with flu anyway? Wrap them in blankets and give'm whiskey to ease the aches and sweat it out? Or maybe give them aspirin/tylenol to bring down a 102 fever? Keep them well supplied with liquids and something to barf into when necessary?
If only I had the training and equipment to perfom these complex medical procedures at home.
^{/antibiotics ain't gonna cure no cure virus... look it up.}

Shadowknight:

...shiat, man, you don't even have a fever. Calm the hell down.

I wonder how many of these people make up shiat because they want attention - I read somewhere that the multiple personalities disorder is almost exclusive to the US, which translates into: I'm faking it.

Perspective is always the thing that goes out the window when we have these PANDEMICS OF EPIC PROPORTIONS where approximately 7.53x10^-7 percent of the population has become infected over the course of a week or so.
I suspect far more people are killed or injured in car wrecks everyday.
Sure, it could get nasty I suppose- but 1918 Spanish Flu proportions? I think the media wishes it would because the utter, irretrievable collapse of the world's economy [it happened last week or the week before in case you missed it] has become kinda dull and we've about beat the global warming thing to death.
It must suck to be a newspaper editor these days.

TheGreatGildersleeve:

Ain't no doctor. EMT. VERY low end of the medical care scale, I assure you.

Lamune_Baba: Walk-in emergency room visits from people with a cough? I guarantee not a damn one of them are insured. And all of them will be skipping out on the bill. The insured call their doctor and say "hey, do you have 15 minutes say, Wednesday, you could work me in?" Then take a few paid sick days off work.

So much THIS. In Grand Forks, the ER seems to always have a bunch of people in it who seem to just have the sniffles. These are the same people who complain that the genuinely injured/seriously ill people get helped before they do. Yes sunshine, the lady having the stroke gets helped before your runny nose gets looked at.

We have several superb walk in clinics in town that can take care of things for much cheaper/faster than an ER visit. Bad bacterial ear infection I had that wouldn't clear up on its own, in and out with a prescription slip in 25 minutes. Bill was $75 out of pocket IIRC as I hadn't met my deductible for my insurance. Insurance covered the medicine though. Of course the ER can't turn you away like these clinics can if you don't have any money/insurance.

Of course I also have 130 hours of banked flex time as well. So I think I'm covered.

Sumo Surfer: Shadowknight:

...shiat, man, you don't even have a fever. Calm the hell down.

I wonder how many of these people make up shiat because they want attention - I read somewhere that the multiple personalities disorder is almost exclusive to the US, which translates into: I'm faking it.

I don't know about MPD, but I do wonder how much the ER system has contributed to cultivating Munchausen syndrome.

This phenomenon is as predictable as Spring rain. Remember all the people who suddenly started stockpiling Cipro when the anthrax scare happened? Not to mention the complete idiots who actually began taking the stuff prophylactically. These are probably the same folks who blow off getting a routine flu shot every year.

pretty damn simple. take peoples temp at the entrance and those who are fine can go fark themselves.

GaryPDX: Swine flu is the perfect distraction from the power struggle with car company investors and banks. It's a full on assault on those evil rich people, the Free and the Constitution. Contract Law is under attack, private businesses and whole industries are being targeted for takeover by this Liberal government. Wake up people..geez.

Bush was the first one to authorize a bailout and thus socialize an industry. Can't pin this one on the Dems.

RadicalMiddle: I've been sick as a dog since Thursday, but I have no intention of seeing the doctor.
I'm taking Mucinex, Claritan, nasal spray, Motrin, and cough drops. I'm doing just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeee.

/Those really are what I'm using.

OMG!! get out of this thread before you infect us!!1!!

\Are you insane?

dognose4: When the outbreak maps start really filling out through the country this week, you're going to start seeing a LOT more panic. We're also not going to be seeing the TRUE amount of cases in official reports, as there will be too many people flooding the hospital to test. That's when the perceived death rate will go up as only the more serious cases are tested. What we've seen in mx city is going to be here shortly.

Quit fearmongering, it's really annoying

All you people telling people that they shouldn't go to the emergency room should STFU.

I'm a Swine Flu Survivor. I caught it 2 weeks ago when the insides of pinata were sprayed all over me at a child's birthday party. It's an ordeal I pray that no one else ever has to go through. Let me tell you of the horrors I experienced:

At the height of the symptoms, I would wake up feeling slightly more sore than usual. A hot shower took care of this, but still. Then the coughing. I coughed 7 or 8 times in a single night. Although the coughing was extremely mild, at one point I had two coughs within 2 minutes of each other!!! One thing the media hasn't talked about it the spontaneous hemorrhaging. While I had the flu, I cut my finger slightly while peeling an apple. There were a few drops of blood, but I had to put on a band-aid. I've had other symptoms too. Interestingly enough, these symptoms were exactly the same as the hay fever symptoms I always get at this time of the year!! But they were Swine Flu. I know they were (I'm pretty sure that the Swine Flu killed off the hay fever virus I usually get). I imagine I'll get invited on Oprah and the talk show circuit to talk about my ordeal. My god have mercy on us all if other people have to go through what I went through. Now I know what it must have been like at Auschwitz.

odisae: but I do wonder how much the ER system has contributed to cultivating Munchausen syndrome.

*googles Munchausen syndrome*

Ha! I wish they'd call it Bullshiatitis, but it doesn't sound as impressive.

Arbus_Khan:
Sure, it could get nasty I suppose...I think the media wishes it would...It must suck to be a newspaper editor these days.

I turned on KRON 4 News while the morning traffic hottie was doing her thing. She said there were no traffic issues; everything was perfect.

So she pointed to the fancy graphics on the green screen to show the viewers where traffic was perfect, and where else it was perfect, and then gave live images of perfect traffic conditions in even more places. Can't they ever say "there is nothing newsworthy to report today" and play clips from Most Extreme Elimination Challenge?

moothemagiccow: GaryPDX: Swine flu is the perfect distraction from the power struggle with car company investors and banks. It's a full on assault on those evil rich people, the Free and the Constitution. Contract Law is under attack, private businesses and whole industries are being targeted for takeover by this Liberal government. Wake up people..geez.

Bush was the first one to authorize a bailout and thus socialize an industry. Can't pin this one on the Dems.

hahaha, Geitner and Bernake wrote the farking thing. Geitner was head of the NY Fed for 5 years right on top of this shiat, now he's Obama's brainchild and the Secretary of Treasury.

Nice try, Boris.

My wife has a really good friend who works at the local hospital and she has been complaining about all the people who think they have swine flu. Have you been to mexico? Have you been to the airport? Do you know anyone who has been to mexico recently? No to all those questions? Get the hell out, idiot.

The only disease Farkers are in danger of is terminal Bachelor's disease also known as lackofnookie.

dead_dangler

Your newsletter, sign me up

/+1

crappie:
Quit fearmongering, it's really annoying

Well, prepare to be annoyed some more.

I'm just stating my prediction. What's yours? I'm not scared at all.

I'm going to be flying back to the US next month from Vietnam by way of Korea (where they've got confirmed swine flu cases), and I'm just praying that my asthma doesn't act up and make me start coughing my head off when I try to enter the US, because between the existing fear of bird flu in Vietnam (and I've been around birds) and the swine flu panic, I really don't want an overzealous official to throw my ass in quarantine.

/not terribly worried about getting swine flu
//more worried about overreactions

Well, on an average day when you turn on the TV, you get hit with a whole series of commercials that list a bunch of symptoms which might mean you have a disease and need to buy the advertised product NOW! Then they give a 5 minute diatribe about all of the precautions needed if you take the product -- except handling it with lead lined gloves.

From yeast infections to artery disease in the legs, to proclamations about how an aspirin saved that person having a heart attack to assurances that you might have acid reflex disease which can erode your gullet away.

The list goes on.

Then the news comes in, whipping the flames of panic over new diseases, old diseases, current flue 'pandemics', making helpful suggestions as to why you basically should boil your hands after doing anything and pointing out how any form of raw meat contains so many swarms of lethal bacteria that it needs to be handled like a biohazard.

Not to mention how helpfully they inform you of the five or six hundred different items from China ranging from toys to vegetables that are poisoned, contaminated or infected with everything from human waste to nuclear radiation.

Then there's the parade of lawyers, who suggest that if you have any of about 100 different diseases/symptoms that you need to call them NOW so you can sue drug companies, physicians, manufacturers, factories or basically any other business and GET MONEY!

Mix that in with the assortment of Public Awareness programs AKA 'Green,' which inform you in great detail how pretty much you're screwed because essentially everything you eat is polluted, from the fish in the sea to the grain in the fields, including the air and the water. There are extensive documentaries assuring you of how your species has turned the world into a sewer and showing you in great detail how if someone in Australia spits into a stream in the Outback, that it manages to show up in your morning egg and cheese biscuit.

Then the dozens of shows/reports/documentaries informing you how whatever you eat -- unless, apparently, it's organically grown weeds and sticks -- will clog your arteries, damage your brain, ruin your heart, cause cancer, affect your 'stiffy' (which will displease your wife/girl friend) cause you to produce mentally and physically defective offspring and even have problems taking a dump.

Naturally, a vast list of symptoms is given which pretty much cover everything from walking to that slight twinge in your knee when it rains.

You're sexually inadequate unless you buy these pills, lotions, lubricants, suction devices, books, instructions or mechanical assistants.

If you're tired when you wake up, then you might have one of several sleep disorders which can ruin your life, wreck your job, cause heart problems and make your blood pressure squirt out your ears.

Don't forget the Medical mysteries programs, where people show up with mysterious symptoms that turn out to be something nasty, hideously expensive, overlooked by 99.9% of the doctors and probably lethal if it hadn't been caught in the nick of time.

It also helps to know how your hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and drug companies are making mistakes in apparently record amounts that can hurt you.

Your antidepressant might make you suicidal or a psychotic killer. Those tranquilizers might turn you into a junky. Those vitamin pills might actually be rotting your kidneys or turning your brain into Swiss cheese. That antibiotic no longer works on about 50 infectious diseases. The side effects from your medications might be worse than the disease. Those pain killers might be addictive. That supplement might turn you into a dumba$$.

By the time you turn off the TV, your subconscious is a nervous wreck.

Of course, magazines and Internet news make sure you're aware of every possible thing that is lurking 'out there' that will hurt you.

So, it's surprising that folks show up at hospitals and doctors with a long laundry list of 'symptoms' that have them concerned?

/Not surprised.

dead_dangler: All you people telling people that they shouldn't go to the emergency room should STFU.

I'm a Swine Flu Survivor. I caught it 2 weeks ago when the insides of pinata were sprayed all over me at a child's birthday party. It's an ordeal I pray that no one else ever has to go through. Let me tell you of the horrors I experienced:

At the height of the symptoms, I would wake up feeling slightly more sore than usual. A hot shower took care of this, but still. Then the coughing. I coughed 7 or 8 times in a single night. Although the coughing was extremely mild, at one point I had two coughs within 2 minutes of each other!!! One thing the media hasn't talked about it the spontaneous hemorrhaging. While I had the flu, I cut my finger slightly while peeling an apple. There were a few drops of blood, but I had to put on a band-aid. I've had other symptoms too. Interestingly enough, these symptoms were exactly the same as the hay fever symptoms I always get at this time of the year!! But they were Swine Flu. I know they were (I'm pretty sure that the Swine Flu killed off the hay fever virus I usually get). I imagine I'll get invited on Oprah and the talk show circuit to talk about my ordeal. My god have mercy on us all if other people have to go through what I went through. Now I know what it must have been like at Auschwitz.

I know what you mean. My power went out last week during some storms, I was in a total panic- sweating, achy, depressed, lethargic for almost an hour before it came back on...

Rik01: Well, on an average day when you turn on the TV, you get hit with a whole series of commercials that list a bunch of symptoms which might mean you have a disease and need to buy the advertised product NOW! ...

So, it's surprising that folks show up at hospitals and doctors with a long laundry list of 'symptoms' that have them concerned?

/Not surprised.

The United States is one of the few countries in the world which pharmaceutical companies advertise their products to consumers directly.

The United States is also one of the countries with the highest cost-per-capita on health care.

It may not be causation but it is a correlation.

dognose4: Number of confirmed cases has risen from 160 to 226 in the US in the last day. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Alabama 1
Arizona 18
California 26
Colorado 4
Connecticut 2
Delaware 10
Florida 3
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Iowa 1
Kansas 2
Kentucky* 1
Massachusetts 7
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Missouri 1
Nebraska 1
Nevada 1
New Hampshire 1
New Jersey 7
New Mexico 1
New York 63
Ohio 3
Rhode Island 1
South Carolina 15
Tennessee 1
Texas 40
Utah 1
Virginia 3
Wisconsin 3

Washington state has 25 suspected cases, that we've been waiting now 4+ days to get confirmation (I believe they tested positive in the state labs, but are now waiting for the national confirmation). Sounds like the system is already well overloaded. Many of the people who are suspected here never traveled to Mexico, don't have kids school in, and are young and healthy. A spring/summer flu is very uncommon, and that in it self should be enough to still be concerned.

Meanwhile, quietly, the CDC and FEMA have mobilized larger shipments tamiflu to every state. They're preparing for the infection to spread even more rapidly in the coming days/weeks.

The dems are going to use the panic and the scare to justify cramming healthcare down our throats.

Damn. I sneezed yesterday but otherwise I feel fine. I was going to wait and see if I developed flu symptoms before seeking medical attention. Now it looks like I need to get to the emergency room ASAP before it gets too crowded.

CnFlight

The United States is one of the few countries in the world which pharmaceutical companies advertise their products to consumers directly.

The United States is also one of the countries with the highest cost-per-capita on health care.

It may not be causation but it is a correlation.

Agreed.

The United States is also the most litigious nation in the world today, with anything related to health care as one of the primary targets for lawsuits. Every drug company is involved in basically a never ending court battle and 90% of the hospitals seem to spend 3/4 of their time in litigation. Plus, even in your city, 99.9% of the doctors will have been sued one or more times.

A friend of mine that works in the admitting dept at the hospital I work at emailed me and told me that we're on the verge of lockdown. Meaning tents outside and no visitors allowed inside. The MSM is 100% to blame for this shiat. Doctors are wasting their time dealing with every first time mother who has a kid who "looks sick" instead of dealing with real emergencies. It's gonna be a long night tonight.

WTF are the hospitals biatching about? Take their temperature, give them a couple of aspirin, then charge them $300.

Most of the people going in there have zero insurance. You honestly think they'll be paying for anything? Plus it's mostly God damned hypochondriacs who see a disease on the news and automatically have all the symptoms. They're wasting time and taking up space that is needed for people who are really sick. Then they sit and biatch because they've been waiting too long. They demand tamiflu thinking that it will prevent them from ever catching the flu.