swine flu - the biggest threat may be people panicking about it

[rm]

via zarq:

"NPR's Joanne Silberner has confirmed from a source in a direct position to know that the World Health Organization will raise its pandemic alert level from 4 to 5. Announcement in Geneva at 5PM ET."

Okay, now don't panic.

No, really.

All this means is that everyone is acknowledging a lot of people are going to get this flu. Yes, this flu has killed some people. The flu kills people every year. A lot of people. Right now the mortality rates and patterns are unclear, but truly, this may be no more risky than any other flu.

HOWEVER, it takes months (at the minimum) to develop new flu vaccines, which means in terms of prevention, your immune system is on its own and it's not prepared. Elderly people, young children and those with compromised immune systems might be at more risk. But maybe not; there's also speculation that those with healthy immune system might be at higher risk because this flu may cause the body to attack itself. The fact is, we just don't know right now, and what you should do is the stuff you always mean to do to protect yourself during flu season but never bother with.

Use common sense. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face. And do not freak out if you start sneezing -- it's allergy season. Also, colds don't come with fevers. If you get something with a fever, take it seriously and try to minimize your contact with others.

If you can walk to work instead of taking mass transit, that's a good plan. If you share a keyboard with others at work, spray it with disinfectant before you sit down to work.

Right, now the real issue is that this is probably the point in which jackasses are going to start panicking.

Remember all that stuff I told you to do when there was concern about the economy collapsing and we'd all be living in tents and I said the problem wasn't the economy (which yes, was and is fucked but not apocalyptically, largely because we've refused to allow it to be -- but whether we should have let it crash and burn is another discussion for another time) but idiots who thought civilization was about to end?

Same drill.

Have the non-prescription stuff you like to take to treat cold or flu in the house. Get face masks now if you're really concerned. Keep your freezer full. Always have at least $100 in small bills in your home.

The world is not going to end and people you know are probably not going to die of this thing. However, the world might be about to get very annoying and you may see sporadic spikes of violence as people have fights at the drugstore over the last packet of face masks. Don't let this be you, eh?

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

However, the world might be about to get very annoying.

No kidding. My own reaction to the latest update was more or less "oh dear", for that reason. Small increase in actual crisis, large increase in perceived one.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

It's already very annoying, but then, who's surprised.

[maryling.livejournal.com]

And no, you cannot have a Tamiflu prescription unless you have symptoms. No prophylactics, no "just in cases."

[iamradar.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that all of the coverage of the swine flu is seriously overblown and over-covered right now.

[6-bleen-7.livejournal.com]

Heh-heh—the jackasses have been panicking for a week now.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

1)Excellent and eminently sensible advice.

2)Eh is a Canuck worship word. You will not say it! 8D

[marcmagus]

Interesting...bbc announced it as having been raised at around the same time you posted this, with no "will raise", but "has raised"

[marcmagus]

Also, very well said.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

In brighter news: http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=90496

Fingers crossed for the NH house and the Maine proposition!

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Woot!

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Link for the above.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

<_< This just had to happen when I'm going to be flying in planes, traveling on trains, and crammed into hostels and museums and such things, right? NICE TIMING, SWINE FLU. (No, I know, this is worse for lots of people other than me.)

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Salon has some good articles this week, including this one urging us not to panic, and this one which tracks the swine flu outbreak of 1976.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The second is by a friend, justpat.

The people who will be punching it out in the WalMart aisles don't read Salon, alas.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Oh cool!

My boss has already circled the Purell wagons. Me, I find the Google Flu Trends soothing.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Flu has moved to 108th and Bway. So closing in on my position.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

The issue of people hoarding antivirals is the real nightmare. Nothing will make a disease, any disease, more resistant and therefore more deadly than improper use of antivirals. I will be waiting for the gov't to drop mine off if needs be, and not getting it sooner. In the event of a major risk, the army and police will go door-to-door and dispense medications and food supplies. I'm refusing to panic.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Agreed, although face masks don't really help to prevent contagion, according to the doctors I know who have posted about this.

Excellent post, and I plan to link to it if I have the time to do a link-spam on this subject. (Let me know if this would not be all right with you.)

Catherine

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Those schoolkids, or something else?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

I was taking to a friend who is an epidemiologist and he said the two best things you can do are wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face as much as possible.

It's amazing to me that many people probably don't know more people die every year from dysentery than anything else. Not to mention so many people die of menengitis and TB every year and this flu has nothing on those. So panicky would be sort of silly for most of us.

[genders.livejournal.com]

Good post. My concerns are slightly elevated since I work in public health. I am washing my hands according to posted procedural instructions several times a day, and trying to remember to wipe down anything and everything with antibacterial wipes (even though this is a virus).

I forgot to do the shared keyboard at work this morning, though.

I'm glad not to be in a congested city or traveling until July, by which time this thing should have shaken out a bit. On the other hand, Arizona is awfully close to Mexico.

If people really want to calm down, they will refer to this as the "N1H1" outbreak...

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

There is a nice article about this here, too---about not panicking and definitely not spreading false rumors. I even translated it as he suggested and published it in my Turkish weblog, also providing him with the link.

So... yes. What you said, exactly.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the big threat will be when flu season comes back around in the cold weather and we don't have enough vaccine.

[marcmagus]

Thank you. I'll try to remember to link next time.

[rm.livejournal.com]

As someone who has often been sneezed on (eeeeew, moisture from strangers!) on the subway, I'm not too opposed to people wearing them even if they are less than thoroughly effective. And hey, they do stop people from touching their faces. I can also envision us in a situation where workplaces say "no face mask, don't come in" if that irrational bullshit starts, I want to be ready.

[requiella]

despite all of this panicing people are still doing the # 1 thing that grosses me out at work; they put their boarding pass or ID in their mouth and have no freaking problem handing their saliva covered BP to me. I wish we could wear gloves, flu or not I don't want any kind of germ.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Having a couple of weeks supply of food, usual meds, water, and amusement (i.e. books) is a good idea in any case. But then, I live in an area that has blizzards.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Suspected case at Teacher's College also mentioned in the Columbia Spectator, unless we're talking about the same case...

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Plus, the death-toll from the common-or-garden seasonal flu illnesses is not inconsiderable, it's merely that swine flu being more virulent affects younger people.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I've got several dozen AA batteries and a good Internet connection, I'm set.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that the news tends to use fear mongering.

Though, is it just me, or is there actually less fear mongering going on?

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

If face masks don't help to prevent contagion, why do dentists and surgeons wear them during surgery?

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

And why do we bother to cover our mouths when we cough/sneeze (effectively, using our hands the same way a face mask would "keep in" the germs)?

I don't buy the whole "face mask doesn't work" thing. It makes no logical sense as to why it wouldn't work.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

The odd thing I find is the swine flu is being spread person-to-person (as far as I'm informed). Yet, the news here is saying "If you've been to X state, have an acute repository illness and a fever, you might have swine flu." If it's been spread person to person, it doesn't matter where you've been. You also have to consider where all the damn strangers around you have been.

Just because you've never been to Mexico/one of the infected areas, doesn't mean the person next to you on the bus hasn't been.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm completely with you on the sneezing issue! Having been infected by people who've sneezed all over me without covering their noses and mouths, I'm very much in favour of face masks. Your point about the "no face mask, don't come in" scenario is well taken, regardless of what the doctors I know might say.

Catherine

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

I know...seriously. Leave the Tamiflu for those who need it.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Replying to both your comments so as not to spam this journal too much, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know why the few I know personally who've posted about this have made that statement. I do know that viruses are far smaller physically than bacteria, and that surgical face masks were designed initially to prevent the spread of bacterial infection. Perhaps it has to do with the size of the filter versus that of the things one is trying to filter out. The full protection gear that I've seen people using where there's an ebola outbreak might support the idea that viruses don't necessarily respect the presence of face masks, especially when fomite transmission vectors are involved, but that's pure speculation on my part.

Catherine

[sethg]

Strangely, though, my local newspaper reports that pharmacies are experiencing a run on Tamiflu. Maybe the right to prescribe antibiotics needs to be restricted to doctors who have enough spine to tell their patients "U NO CAN HAS".

[sethg]

My understanding is that face masks, all by themselves, provide such little protection that they're not really necessary. The main benefit is that they prevent you from touching your own face, which is a common way of carrying germs from an infected surface to your mucous membranes.

Surgeons wear face masks and sterile caps and gowns and wash the crap out of their hands before putting on sterile gloves and make sure that every tool and surface they are using in surgery is sterile. (Or at least, they're supposed to.) All this is necessary because your skin is one of your first lines of defense against infection, and once that's cut away then all sorts of normally-harmless micro-organisms can become very dangerous.

[sethg]

My wife and I spent the evening of December 31, 1999 at a friend's house rather than in our own apartment. She said she wasn't worried about Y2K actually causing The Apocalypse, but worried about some drunk crashing into a utility pole, blacking out half the city, and causing riots among people who thought the blackout was the first sign of The Apocalypse.

(Aaah, remember Y2K panic? Good times...)

[blucrowlaughing.livejournal.com]

which is more worrying to me because that makes me think there is something to worry about

[blucrowlaughing.livejournal.com]

work in a hospital and were already getting a few people who wants the tamaflu Now and will say yes they have symptoms right up until we tell them they need an appointment for a script.

*eyeroll*

no the docs do not hand out antibiotic/flu meds or pretty much anything else like that unless you see them for the problem first.

[blucrowlaughing.livejournal.com]

tamaflu isn't an antibiotic it an antiviral...but yes I agree. out doc are going with 'no appointment , no symptoms, no drugs'

[maryling.livejournal.com]

One woman I talked to said that her son's pediatrician had given him a script for Tamiflu because the boy has juvenile diabetes. When I later told the doc I work for about the call I directly said "docs like that pediatrician are the reason there's not enough Tamiflu for the people that actually need it."

(The mom was calling to ask for another script for her father "in case he gets sick, I don't want him to give it to my son." I firmly explained that unless the patient is showing symptoms, we can't prescribe. Didn't even have to ask my doc.)