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ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: Concerns and fears about the swine flu/Washing your hands a lot? Masks anyone? (5/3/2009 2:48:03 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Owner59
I always wash before eating and after using a public restroom.I also use a paper towel to open the restroom door when leaving if it`s a pull door.I push it open w/ my foot if it`s an outie.
Same here. I take it a step further, too. I don't flush the toilet unless I can do it with my foot. You know that push-button above the urinal? The last guy who pushed it? The last thing he touched before he pressed that button was his dripping dick.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Owner59
With thousands dying every year from influenza complications,I`m puzzled as to why there is so much fear over this type.
I think it was a combination of extremely poor information management and unprofessional methodology by Mexican heath authorities, compounded by hysterical reporting by American "news" agencies.
It all started with Mexico reporting that they had a new strain of the flu that had infected about 1,000 people and killed about 70 of them, numbers which quickly climbed to 2,000 cases and about 150 deaths. This initial report suggested a mortality rate of approximately 7%, which is extremely high. And the news networks jumped all over it without asking some very important questions. First of all, in retrospect, since when does a flu bug only infect 1,000 (or 2,000) people in a city as large and as densely packed as Mexico City? Common sense should have told all of us - and certainly told medical professionals specializing in epidemiology and infectious diseases - that there had to be way, way more than 2,000 actual cases, and the more actual cases there were, the lower the mortality rate. And the lower the mortality rate, the less unusual (and less dangerous) this strain is. Looking back now, a week later, it appears more and more that this flu was much more widespread than previously reported, but that most people didn't go to the doctor because... duh... it was just the flu. The couple of thousand who did seek treatment did so because they were unusually sick, and that's what skewed the initial numbers. And thus the initial estimates of the lethality.
And, while i don't want to rush to judgment, I have to wonder how badly American health officials dropped that very same ball. It's clear now, from the interviews I've seen over the last few days, that they're finally reaching that same conclusion, but given that ordinary people like myself were asking these questions 4 or 5 days ago, why did it seemingly take these medical experts so many days to start doing the same math I was doing on Tuesday and Wednesday? Everything they've been saying the last 48 hours or so has sounded like classic "cover-your-ass-speak." I think they just don't want to admit they acted too hastily on too little information.
And don't even get me started on their pathetic efforts to explain what Biden really meant to say when he so plainly announced he would recommend to his family that they stay off of airplanes and subways; everyone who saw the interview knows exactly what he said, and the Administration's subequent efforts to completely rewrite history serve only to undermine their overal credibility on the entire swine flu issue. It makes it more difficult for me to believe that anything they say on the subject is the real truth, rather than some lame attempt to duck responsibility and manage public perceptions.
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