It’s all over the headlines. You can’t turn around anywhere without hearing about the swine flu epidemic. Will it turn pandemic, do you think? The number of suspected as well as confirmed cases have risen. How scared are you that it will become a serious crisis?
Some people were speculating that the swine flu is really just another “wag the dog” to get us off the topic of the economy and global recession. However, the swine flu is worsening the recession by hurting the travel industry.
Maybe I’m a little complacent about this epidemic right now because of my location. We live out in the villages, away from densely-populated city centers, so the risk is rather low. No one around us has been on holiday in Mexico and if they had, we hardly come into contact with anyone except through school and the gym. Am I reasonable or is this just a false sense of security?
I’d like to know how my colleagues out there feel about this epidemic.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I’m a Brit living in LA – FAR too close to the Mexican border for my liking. It hasn’t even reached pandemic status yet but when I went to the store yesterday they had completely sold out of hand sanitizer, face masks and green tea! (Yes I was trying to buy all three!!)
I say stay in your village, duct tape yourself in, and enjoy your pork chops!
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April 30th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Hi A in B,
I think it is a storm in a teacup, it will be all forgotten about in a few weeks. It is a political side event to detractt form the recession – You won’t be surprised by that I don’t think.
There should be more concern about AIDS and smoking as killers.
Take care
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April 30th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I was looking at it in a very detached manner,,, until I heard that a probable case had been detected in Chicago (later, I heard the number is up to 9 suspected cases … I haven’t followed up to see if there are, in fact, confirmed cases here). So I’ve gotten a little bit more concerned. … Dug up a small bottle of hand sanitiser to keep in my bag, ostensibly to use after emerging from the El, or from the place I volunteer at. Of course, I’ve forgotten every time, LoL!
I’ll only freak out if I see a whole bunch of people starting to wear those masks in public. :p
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May 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
More people die from infections caught in UK hospitals every single day than have died from Swine Flu in total so far. A lot more people will have to die from it before I even stop changing the TV channel whenever it’s mentioned. Anyone that is actually afraid of it has just ignored common sense and succumbed to the mass hysteria.
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