Talk about yer knee-jerk reactions!
 

The state governing body of all public school competition in Texas, the University Interscholastic League(UIL), has decided to suspend all inter-school competition until at least May 11 because of the pig flu scare! I was scheduled to work a playoff series between two of the top ten ranked 4A schools this weekend. Talk about your buzzkills!

This hysteria is quite idiotic.

I keep hearing that the medical experts saying that this flu is really no more dangerous than the regular strains, yet the media keeps hyping the crap out of it. Texas has canceled all high school sports, AZ has shut down an entire school for 7 days after a single student tested positive for it 2 weeks ago and they were saying on the radio yesterday that some countries were pulling pork products off the shelf because of the swine flu scare.

Arent they slaughtering like 350K pigs in Egypt?

This does seem to be a fairly mild strain of flu. The difference with the swine flu is:

1) We have no vaccine (which is normal for the initial outbreak of a new strain, so see #2)
2) The initial outbreak was in North America instead of the usual Asia, which means
a) American media is going nuts about it, as is their normal practice with anything they can make into a crisis, real or imagined,
b) The WHO and CDC are more concerned than they are about the usual Asia initial outbreaks due to the much higher global mobility of North Americans that your typical rural Asian.

So far, we have suffered through a devastating first week or so here in the USA and have see a total of 0.00003% of the normal annual deaths from the normal flu outbreak in the USA, and the normal death rate happens when we have vaccines available...

The flu vaccine is another big joke. They have no idea what strain of flu will hit for that year, so they just make a big guess and produce a vaccine for what they think will hit. If they guess wrong all those flu shots they gave have absolutely no effect.

My DD's high school is closed today because about a score of students (of four-score who just came back from a band trip to WDW) are now showing flu-like symptoms and a few of these have had a postive test for some influenza. They are supposedly disinfecting the whole school, while awaiting a response from SC DHEC as to whether it was swine flu or not.

This has, so far, had the side effect of delaying the first play off game for softball by one day, until tomorrow, because you can't have any activities if the school is closed.

So, Texas is not alone.

WhatWhats the big deal with the flu?
 

I kinda like the flu. You take a few days off work, lose a few pounds, clean out the system a bit. What's not to like?

South America (particularly Argentina) is going absolutely ape-spit over this swine flu (gripe de porcina). It's amazing just how much they cover the goings-on in America down here. My wife's sister suggested we get some of those surgical masks. Are you kidding me?

But hey, what can you do? Wife and I are scheduled to fly from Buenos Aires to JFK and back down to RDU on Saturday, arriving Sunday. Hopefully, things won't be too insane by the time we get there...

Dave,

Que diablos hace en Buenos Aires?

Personaaly I fear that they are being overly dramatic with canceling events here in New York and other effected areas. Until there is evidence of mass people with this strain normal precautions(hand washing,covering your mouth when coughing)should be adequate.

Alabama has cancelled as well, but is shooting for a May 5th restart.

We have the first confirmed case in Georgia in my city (LaGrange) but are still living life as best as we can. Only difference I've seen is all the news trucks from Atlanta parked around the hospital!

I think you'll be all right as long as you keep your tongue out of the pigs nose.. which its no wonder they are cancelling games in Alabama and Texas

:eek: :D

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7981/swine.png

First Question:
 

qui bono?

I guess for their own! I am really not sure. Maybe to feed the paranoia! :rolleyes: