Remember Swine Flu?

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

There was genuine cause for concern. The virus was killing healthy young people and pregnant women(rather than old people as normal flu does, so considerably more years of life were lost, if not considerably more lives), and really did have the potential to spread alot further than it did. The frenzy may have been distasteful in many ways, but it did get people to be hygienic and germ fearing...which more than likely helped prevent it spreading.

 

[Jfswift]

I think it wasn't anymore dangerous than a regular flu although I do question why it seemed to only affect healthy adults 18-45 (mostly). I think that's very strange.

 

[Milo Windby]

I was not even worried about it when it was on the news. Nice to see that its gone from the news now.

also

Spoiler

 

[Firia]

Oh and don't forget West Nile, Mad Cow and SARS!

In all fairness, SARS was actually pretty deadly. In china, people were executed because they had SARS. The inability to find a cure for that occationally deadly epidemic turned into a 100% death rate for those that had it based on the nation a person caught it in.

Swine flu and bird flu definitely sucked for anyone that got it because it was so over hyped by the media. But SARS was a real problem. It was just also a real problem that got the hype treatment in North America.

 

[DreadfulSorry]

lol, I actually just went to a lecture last night about infectious diseases during the American Civil War and the speaker asked if we knew what the latest epidemic was...someone said SARS. So obviously you are not alone, OP

Although, I'm not sure if H1N1 was actually ever classified as an epidemic...

 

[mjc0961]

It went away long before the oil spill. Besides that, it's no more dangerous than the normal flu. Once people realized that, it wasn't worth mentioning anymore.

Yeah, but until we hit that point, it was so facepalm inducing how people were flipping out. Here's a bunch of hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE, don't leave your house if you have even the slightest fever, etc etc... So silly.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

It was nothing else than complete media overkill. A different strain of flu - and nothing else, in fact I think it killed much less than the normal flu did.

I remember seeing people wearing surgical masks and Latex gloves in school, and I openly (and obnoxiously) told them they were worrying about catching a overhyped disease. Anyone with a temperature above normal was sent home for the week, people prayed for the vaccine while I spent that time like any other school day.

 

[Avelestar]

Yeah, I had it...sucked about as much as a normal flu. Had to take a week and a half off uni. New strains pop up all the time, the news just needs stuff to talk about...and blow far out of proportion because OMG WE'RE DOOMED!!

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Spoiler: You mean the serial killer?

 

[Zacharine]

Hahaha I was just thinking about how stupid the whole swine flu thing was the other day and how it went away virtually overnight. They always want just one big story to hype over and over and over. Remember before the oil spill it was Haiti? Now I never see stories on that. Even the spill is getting stale, prepare yourself for the next tragedy.

However, in the case of potentially pandemic diseases there is a correlation between public and private action, availability of information, and reduced severity of said disease.

The reason we do not hear of swine fly anymore is because all the measures taken reduced the threat of pandemic to levels where it is no longer any more dangerous than common seasonal influenza. Because in the case of global diseases the one thing we lack is time to respond and develop medicines, as well as build resistance on population scale. Washing/disinfecting hands, visibility in media (for informational, educational purposes and repeating of given preventitive instructions), and extraordinary measures at transportation hubs and entertainment centers etc can drastically buy that time.

It wasn't a case of hype, it was a case genuinely global deadly disease that was defeated in part due to said 'hype'.

No. It was never any more contagious or deadly than any of the other forms of influenza that have been around for centuries. This particular form only even got on the news because a couple Mexican doctors overstated how fatal it was in the first couple weeks and it's a distant relative of the Spanish Influenza, which was actually bad. The whole thing was in reality a sadly overhyped mess.

Care to give a source on that overstated lethality and it being no more contagious than any other influenza?

 

[L-J-F]

Although I haven't researched it, I think the "independant" sources the WHO used were funded by the company who created the vaccine ... could be wrong, but I heard that somewhere.

 

[ZephrC]

Care to give a source on that overstated lethality and it being no more contagious than any other influenza?

Here's the overstated lethatlity (They mention it at the bottom): http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/05/swine-flu-us-ca.html
And here's an article on contagion: http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/12/31/swine_flu_may_be_less_contagious_than_feared/

I actually couldn't find the originals for either article I read, so I dug those up with google. So yay, multiple sources. For me at least. Swine Flu can apparently still be contagious after the fever breaks, which is unusual, but you're no more likely to catch it from a contagious person than you are with an average influenza virus.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

Yeah, my step-dad had it.

 

[Klepa]

We had a four-day LAN party during February or something. One of my mates was stumbling around the grounds, absolutely shitfaced, calling his boss that he can't come to work, because he has swine flu. That's what I remember. I also remember my sister, being the tool that she is, completely buying all the hype, and constantly warning me about the dangers...

 

[Zacharine]

Care to give a source on that overstated lethality and it being no more contagious than any other influenza?

Here's the overstated lethatlity (They mention it at the bottom): http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/05/swine-flu-us-ca.html
And here's an article on contagion: http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/12/31/swine_flu_may_be_less_contagious_than_feared/

I actually couldn't find the originals for either article I read, so I dug those up with google. So yay, multiple sources. For me at least. Swine Flu can apparently still be contagious after the fever breaks, which is unusual, but you're no more likely to catch it from a contagious person than you are with an average influenza virus.

It would seem I was wrong.

I do note however, that one of those articles mentioned that "Swine flu has sickened an estimated one-sixth of Americans since the novel virus was first identified in April." As in, despite the media furor, increased hygienic measures etc, one sixth still went trough it within a period of roughly 6 months, afflicting not only the young children and the older demographic but the relatively healthy young adult population as well. Not to mention, it did go global in fairly short order.

So I still hold it was more than just an influenza, and the potential for something much worse was there. But, thank you for showing me those articles; it would seem I was wrong regarding the lethality and the overall contagion rate.

Now, I must admit I don't know what kind of media uproar there was in the USA-side of the Atlantic, but over here where I live it was visible, but informational and most certainly not panic inducing. Perhaps that colours my perception too much; I wasn't bombarded with "DOOMSDAY!" messages about it, unlike some posters in this thread seem to imply.

 

[tomhaigh7]

Yeh , Swins Flu came and went , just like bird flu and all those other phenomon, , not pleasant but still i will just say this ;

I bet a pharmacutical giant has a cure for the common cold and will not release it becasue they can make lots of money on cough sweets, and other so called cold medication !!!

 

[ZephrC]

Care to give a source on that overstated lethality and it being no more contagious than any other influenza?

Here's the overstated lethatlity (They mention it at the bottom): http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/05/swine-flu-us-ca.html
And here's an article on contagion: http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/12/31/swine_flu_may_be_less_contagious_than_feared/

I actually couldn't find the originals for either article I read, so I dug those up with google. So yay, multiple sources. For me at least. Swine Flu can apparently still be contagious after the fever breaks, which is unusual, but you're no more likely to catch it from a contagious person than you are with an average influenza virus.

It would seem I was wrong.

I do note however, that one of those articles mentioned that "Swine flu has sickened an estimated one-sixth of Americans since the novel virus was first identified in April." As in, despite the media furor, increased hygienic measures etc, one sixth still went trough it within a period of roughly 6 months, afflicting not only the young children and the older demographic but the relatively healthy young adult population as well. Not to mention, it did go global in fairly short order.

So I still hold it was more than just an influenza, and the potential for something much worse was there. But, thank you for showing me those articles; it would seem I was wrong regarding the lethality and the overall contagion rate.

Now, I must admit I don't know what kind of media uproar there was in the USA-side of the Atlantic, but over here where I live it was visible, but informational and most certainly not panic inducing. Perhaps that colours my perception too much; I wasn't bombarded with "DOOMSDAY!" messages about it, unlike some posters in this thread seem to imply.

Well yes, to be fair, the WHO and here in the US the CDC had perfectly sane reactions to it. It was in just the right place at just the right time to be hitting the major population centers at the beginning of the flu season, and because of that over-reporting in Mexico early reports on it's fatality levels were conflicted. There was certainly every reason to be cautious, and it certainly didn't hurt anything to have the vaccine prepared quickly. Part of the reason it spread so quickly last year is simply because it was a new strain of the flu, so nobody had any immunity to it, which is another thing they had to keep in mind.

Mostly it was the US news media that was the problem. They tried to make it sound like some sort of killer superflu that would doom all of humanity. It was really, really irritating, so a lot of us Americans that knew what was actually going on tend to get a bit grumpy about it still.

 

[Zacharine]

Well yes, to be fair, the WHO and here in the US the CDC had perfectly sane reactions to it. It was in just the right place at just the right time to be hitting the major population centers at the beginning of the flu season, and because of that over-reporting in Mexico early reports on it's fatality levels were conflicted. There was certainly every reason to be cautious, and it certainly didn't hurt anything to have the vaccine prepared quickly. Part of the reason it spread so quickly last year is simply because it was a new strain of the flu, so nobody had any immunity to it, which is another thing they had to keep in mind.

Mostly it was the US news media that was the problem. They tried to make it sound like some sort of killer superflu that would doom all of humanity. It was really, really irritating, so a lot of us Americans that knew what was actually going on tend to get a bit grumpy about it still.

Ah, well, that would explain it. Media does have the tendency to blow any uncertain situation or fact completely out of proportions if it will make good headlines. Like they did in the supposed 'climategate'.

 

[deus-ex-machina]

You still didn't answer my question. The symptoms you listed could still have been a bad sniffly cold. Man-flu, perhaps? It was very easy to test for and unless you're a microbiologist and you tested yourself, saying you KNOW you had it still doesn't mean much, even if you spell it in capitals.

Ok, let's put it this way. I had a huge temperature, no energy, trouble breathing, inability to eat or walk, I'd been in direct contact with someone who had swine flu, and I had to be lifted home because I couldn't focus on walking.
Flu's a different set of symptoms, as you get aches and less of the swollen throat.
I think that allows for capitals

Fine. You had symptoms but that doesn't mean you specifically had swine flu. As people have already said, the symptoms didn't always present as being any more severe than a strong infection of flu.

You didn't answer my question. Were you tested? Yes or No. It's really the only way to 'KNOW' you had it. Anyway, I don't care anymore. It doens't matter. I was just curious to see how many people were swabbed considering at the time they were handing out Tamiflu like it was candy. I mean, 'being in contact with swine flu', could easily mean, 'they were given the tablets' given how the situation was handled.

 

[Dyme]

The media still talked about how the vaccines weren't needed and are waste of money.