Friday, June 5, 2009

Swine flu two

Ok.

A school in Brisbane has been closed for a week after a student was tested positive for swine flu.

All this fright.

Tell me, next time there's swine flu in Australia, perhaps this time next year, and noone has any resistance to it, are we going to shut the place down?

Update:
Where does that e on the end of swine keep going to?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard, this flu is not very disabling, milder than ordinary flu.

Not being a doctor, I would say let it rip, the sooner everyone gets over it the better, not to mention, not everyone seems to be affected by it.

Orion

Mr. Bingley said...

The good thing is, at least here in the States, that pork prices are plummeting because some morons now fear The Other White Meat, so it's a great time to stock up for your barbecue!

Carpe Jugulum said...

Orion

The symptoms that manifest are quite mild compared to the usual seasonal flu, and, as a comparative the incident rates are a fraction of what the seasonal infections would be.

Synonym time - Influenza;

Flu
Wog
Lurgi
URTI
RTI
Coryza
Rhinorrhoea
Viraemia
Viral Illness

and, the good old standby;

NFI

Cheers

Skeeter said...

This morning's news has Singapore advising its citizens to avoid travel to Victoria.
Bet the Singaporeans have been wanting to do that for years.
We are about to be invaded by Mexicans who spend every winter with us. They insist that they are healthy and they have yet to see anyone wearing a mask in Melbourne.

RebeccaH said...

They (and by "they", I mean the anonymous "they") say that this swine flu thing could be the Spring harbinger of a really dreadful Fall swine flu epidemic (possibly reversed in the Antipodes, but maybe not). I don't wish to make light of the possiblity of a really nasty epidemic of death (air travel, and all that), but on the other hand, we in the 21st century have access to the most comprehensive health care in the history of mankind (even in the Third World, they get our hospital equipment, notions of hygiene, and philanthropic vaccines). We also eat better (except in brutal dictatorships like North Korea and Zimbabwe), which is a really important safeguard when it comes to disease.

When a disease starts to kill one of every three or four citizens in a First World country regardless of the status of their health, that's the time to find yourself a cave or a shack in the woods with a year's supply of canned goods, and threaten to shotgun anybody who comes near.

Skeeter said...

Rebecca, the seasonal aspects of this epidemic could well be as "they" are saying. The fact that it is hitting southern, colder, Victoria so much harder than in our more northern states supports the predictions.
While we Queenslanders approach the winter solstice enjoying this sort of weather, it's easy to be complacent.