Tuesday.

Panic? No.

But it is kind of annoying to continually have to put up with the derpers' utter lack of knowledge or understanding of health-related matters.

Flu kills a lot of people. Is there something about this guy that should be worrisome?

I prefer to panic over the supervolcano non warning from yesterday.

whidbey: Panic? No.

But it is kind of annoying to continually have to put up with the derpers' utter lack of knowledge or understanding of health-related matters.

Just read an article this morning about CFL bulbs that naturally turned into a discussion about mercury in vaccinations, and how 'everybody knows' vaccinations are bad for you.

Sadly there's no vaccination for derpism.

I don't get it, this is just the flu right? Why is this such a big deal?

ITT: people who mus know that H5N1 is avian flu.

E'body gotta die sometime, Red

Cytokine Storm: I don't get it, this is just the flu right? Why is this such a big deal?

???
I'm not sure if iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg or facepalm.jpg so I will go with notsureifserious.jpg

Stand reference in 3...2...1...

Captain Trips

It's China. Wake me up when American medicine doesn't help, then I'll panic.

Considering that less than 600 people have contracted it worldwide, I'd say... never. Never is the time to panic.

JammerJim: Flu kills a lot of people. Is there something about this guy that should be worrisome?

H5N1 has a rather high mortality rate as far as the flu goes. Higher than 2009's swine flu

Ayn Rand's Cervix: JammerJim: Flu kills a lot of people. Is there something about this guy that should be worrisome?

H5N1 has a rather high mortality rate as far as the flu goes. Higher than 2009's swine flu

That wouldn't be hard, since the swine flu had a lower mortality rate than normal flu. Remember you have to have TWO things for a disease to be a problem:

1) It has to spread widely. Doesn't matter how deadly or painful or whatever it is if it doesn't spread all over. If like 2 people catch it, big deal.

2) It has to be fairly deadly (or have other nasty permanent effects). Everyone in the world can catch something like a common cold and it doesn't matter, it doesn't cause many problems because very few people die.

Only if both are true is it a problem for humanity at large. Please note that the regular ass old flu spreads pretty far and wide every year, and kills a number of people. You can look up the numbers for that and get yourself sort of a baseline since nobody gets worried about it.

I'm for anything that helps cut down on my daily commute

I know! Let's all crowd into hospitals, doctors' offices, and medical clinics to line up for a vaccine! Surely nobody else in the waiting rooms is already infected with anything dangerous.

BigLuca: Cytokine Storm: I don't get it, this is just the flu right? Why is this such a big deal?

???
I'm not sure if iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg or facepalm.jpg so I will go with notsureifserious.jpg

I've decided on iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg, just too much of a coincidence otherwise. For the rest of the class, one reason SARS, the 1918 flu and swine flu have such a high mortality rate because they can cause a potentially fatal immune reaction consisting of a positive feedback loop between cytokines and immune cells, with highly elevated levels of various cytokines. This process is commonly called a Cytokine Storm.

meat0918: Walker: When scientists mutate the virus so it more easily spreads between mammals. Oh wait, they've just done that. OK, panic now.

I'm ok with this, as long as it's done in an appropriate lab and the samples are destroyed after testing. Scientist really want to know why the Spanish Flu killed so many people, and they also want to develop a longer lasting vaccine against the flu so we chasing a moving target when vaccinating every year.

Science isn't really all that scary. the scientists then spread it throughout airports and sports stadiums, killing billions, creating a post-apocalyptic waste-land where the survivors must battle to the death.

ftfy

Wasn't H5N1 one of those lesser-known Star Wars droids?

meh this world could use a good population adjustment.
maybe down to a few million survivors.
then they could possibly make some much needed changes in how the world works.

"But, but... teh virus DIDN'T kill millions! Where yoour science NOW, eh CDC?"

The REASON why the various flu viruses that people were warned about DIDN'T cause mass casualties is BECAUSE the watchdog agencies mobilized against them early on. Duh.

meat0918: Walker: When scientists mutate the virus so it more easily spreads between mammals. Oh wait, they've just done that. OK, panic now.

I'm ok with this, as long as it's done in an appropriate lab and the samples are destroyed after testing. Scientist really want to know why the Spanish Flu killed so many people, and they also want to develop a longer lasting vaccine against the flu so we chasing a moving target when vaccinating every year.

Science isn't really all that scary.

They're not trying to make longer lasting vaccines...it's the immune system that forgets more and more what it hasn't been exposed to as time goes by.

Cytokine Storm: I don't get it, this is just the flu right? Why is this such a big deal?

The flu virus families can sometimes "cross breed" (a gross simplification). H5N1 is exceptional due to its high mortality (60%). The ability to spread among humans is much more common in flu viruses; a feature H5N1 lacks. Health agencies want to keep the spread and exposure to H5N1 down so it never gets the chance to learn the "spread easily" trick in the wild from a more common flu strain.

Hence, tracking and quarantining human infections, as well as taking efforts to keep it suppressed in the poultry population from whence it came.

What would panicking accomplish, exactly, other than letting everyone know that the person is a little biatch?

namatad: Hobodeluxe: meh this world could use a good population adjustment.
maybe down to a few million survivors.
then they could possibly make some much needed changes in how the world works.

LOL
I like to go down this path.
BUT
if you leave only a few million, there are a number of problems:
CLEAN UP - that will leave 7 billion dead bodies rotting in the sun. that is a lot of disease right there.
complete collapse of civilization - pretty much the end of all modern production, power, food, development, education, medicine.

unless say, only australia wasnt infected. in theory, a large isolated country like that would be mostly self sustaining. mostly.
as long as they werent on the beach


dude its not australia, its madagascar... its impossible to breach!

in the country's first reported human death attributed to the virus in 18 months.

This puts it in the same tier of worries as Bubonic Plauge, slightly lower than small pox.

Hopefully gwyneth paltrow didn't fark this guy too.

Every influenza outbreak kills people. That's not a basis to panic.

When you have a death rate that's as high as 15% of those infected, like that of the Spanish Flu of the early 20th century... that's time to worry about it.

Panic is when you're out of ammo when fighting zombies.

It's probably time to start worrying when China clams up about the spread of H5N1 in humans.
Trick is, they're never really forthcoming about anything. So who knows when that might (not) be?

To be on the safe side, I'll just keep subduing my immune system with alcohol. You know, for my long term health.

Virulency: namatad: Hobodeluxe: meh this world could use a good population adjustment.
maybe down to a few million survivors.
then they could possibly make some much needed changes in how the world works.

LOL
I like to go down this path.
BUT
if you leave only a few million, there are a number of problems:
CLEAN UP - that will leave 7 billion dead bodies rotting in the sun. that is a lot of disease right there.
complete collapse of civilization - pretty much the end of all modern production, power, food, development, education, medicine.

unless say, only australia wasnt infected. in theory, a large isolated country like that would be mostly self sustaining. mostly.
as long as they werent on the beach


dude its not australia, its madagascar... its impossible to breach!

Yeah but if it's a parasite, you just have to leave it undetected for a while then kick in all the attributes

no worries. mankind is so over-due for major madness, something is bound to send shivers down your spines soon. very soon.

/soon!

Hopefully madagascar shuts down their airports and naval yards. We need someone to live.

Glitchwerks: [it-is-law.com image 500x779]

Came for President Madagascar.. left satisfied.

sidenote--- want to play pandemic now...

Trance750: BigLuca: meat0918: Walker: When scientists mutate the virus so it more easily spreads between mammals. Oh wait, they've just done that. OK, panic now.

I'm ok with this, as long as it's done in an appropriate lab and the samples are destroyed after testing. Scientist really want to know why the Spanish Flu killed so many people, and they also want to develop a longer lasting vaccine against the flu so we chasing a moving target when vaccinating every year.

Science isn't really all that scary. the scientists then spread it throughout airports and sports stadiums, killing billions, creating a post-apocalyptic waste-land where the survivors must battle to the death.

ftfy

LOL. Sounds like my friend. He is convinced that the Center for Disease Control actually infects people with disease, just so the pharmacy company can make millions, selling the cure

It's a little known fact that the pharmaceutical industry is just a front for the Sy-Fy channel. They use it for field research and test audiences before they invest in a made-for-TV movie.

Just one human?

/Revenge

I'm more concerned with how contagious it is. When it mutates to be contagious like measles, we are in for a hell of a nasty flu season even if it doesn't kill everyone it attacks.

This is why I'm trying to move out of Las Vegas. If and when an Asian flu enters the country, it will be through here.

Asian guests smear spit and snot all over the gaming machines for good luck. The mostly Mexican casino porters who don't give a damn about bloodborne pathogens anymore than they give a damn about learning English reuse the same dirty rag to polish each and every other gaming machine and conceivably wipeable surface on the casino floor (and bathroom). I've seen casino porters pick up vomit and feces with their bare hands, wipe their hands clean on the seat of their pants, and then go to break. More often than not, those same casino porters will then stand in line in employee cafeterias, examining food items with their bare hands with no intention of taking it. Some will even take bites out of food items and then throw the product back.

If a casino porter gets sick, the casino still expects him or her to show up for work. Casinos do not give you sick days and unless you're falling down into a heap, they will not send you home. I've had the experience of being the only graveyard employee showing up to work while everybody else has called in sick (back then, the casino where I worked at had well over 200 people on the graveyard shift). At that same casino, it took two casino porters dropping stone cold dead on the casino floor for them to relax the rules even a little bit.

Because many Latin human resource workers hire only other Latins regardless of their job qualifications, a casino porter that works at one property will work at another property down the street. A potentially infected casino worker will often take a packed Strip bus to get his or her other job. Furthermore, because many Latin PAD/GRA employees are using stolen or borrowed identification. They will not go to hospitals. Some of them will instead go to illegal clinics and botánicas for help.

From TFA:

"A version of this article appeared in print on January 1, 2012, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Man Dies From Bird Flu in Southern China."

So... the NYT has time travel?