Im a junior in highschool right now. Every day second period i sit down at my desk after grabbing a newspaper and write a short summary of an article of my choice. This week, from Monday to Friday there has been some sort of front page coverage on the Swine Flue. (Scientifically preferred H1N1,"Swine flu" lead to some misconceptions[1])

For MY convenience, and because i have confidence that a possible minority of you wont slaughter your pigs because of this, i will call it swine flu. There was never any NEW coverage, basically every article was just some re-arranged hash of the article from the day before. Rather than seeing the same statistic of how many people worldwide are infected with swine flu, i would love to see the exponentially increasing variable which represents the number of articles offering "News Coverage" about swine flu. Honestly, I think this whole ordeal is just a media scare like global warming (JAYKAY!), but seriously... i think its just a media scare.

Why do i think this? Lets take a look at some diagnostics:

Normal Influenza virus symptoms:
+Headache
+Fever
+Muscular fatigue
+Runny or stuffy nose
+Sore throat
+Aches
+Coughing
+Nausea
+Vomiting
+Diarrhea

The SWINE FLU!!!OMGWTFMEXICO virus symptoms:
+Fever
+Lethargy
+Lack of appetite
+Runny or stuffy nose
+Sore throat
+Coughing
+Nausea
+Vomiting
+Diarrhea

If there is any reason to fear the swine flu more than the regular flu please let me hear it so that i may stop parading false information like an idiot, Thanks

OMG LACK OF APPETITE WERE GOING TO DIE!!!![/notserious]

The swine flu is going to be the same thin gall other "animal" flu's are, a media scam to make you buy things you dont need, or already have 2 or 3 of. The only issue I have is they have located 2 "possible" cases near us, and Im worried the local supermarket wont have any employees working tomorrow.

The regular flu has already killed thousands of people this year, but you don't really hear about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/28/regular.flu/index.html

I'm from San Diego and I'm not very concerned. If I happened to get it, I would make sure to stay hydrated, get sleep, and just take whatever medicine to help alleviate the symptoms.

I wish people were required to look up sites like this.

Well, the reason it's such a big deal is because there's no cure or vaccine for it (yet.) And recently there has been a reported death in my state. Well, the 26 month boy actually came from Mexico to get treated in Houston but he didn't make it.

Better safe than sorry.

I bet that governor of Texas is having second thoughts about seceding.

Wait what? Seriously?

And then it all made sense. If this virus gets worse then influenza, it was probably created to stop texas from even thinking that.

I base this clue hunting on the fact that you're already good at mafia.

The media is one thing, but when WHO levels up this virus so quickly, I'm not buying that it's a media show .

I spread a rumor with my friends that swine flu is a conspiracy created by the government to reduce inflation.


Anyway, Texas has shut down a few school districts (3 local ones to me)
and public events are cancelled

I would just like to point out that I agree with the fact that this topic was moved from SD. For one, the flu isn't associated with "swine" and is actually called H1N1 -- why you labelled the topic "Swine Flu" still baffles me. You posting the term "Swine Flu" shows me that you have not actually researched the flu. Second, I hardly see an arguement here.

He called it the Swine Flu because everyone else is calling it the swine flu. Media outlets are calling it the Swine Flu, and he was going to discuss the media's magnification or not of the problem, and his argument was presented in the difference between deaths by Flu and Swine Flu and by similarities in symptoms.

That isn't much to argue there. You present facts, and done deal.

Presenting facts is what an argument is. First you present facts for it being a media scam, then anyone who wants to argue presents facts, such as the rapid dispersal throughout the earth and death toll in Mexico to prove otherwise. Someone has to start off with facts somewhere.

H1N1 Influenza Virus.

Actually, the reason why it is gaining so much attention is because it is a special mutated version of pig flu that allowed it to be transferred from human to human. Pigs can contract human, pig, and bird flu. What immunologists say is that when two virsuses infect the same cell, the genetic information can get mixed up, and you therefore have a flu virus with a new set of genes. Because it is a mutated version of pig flu, people are worried there'd be another epidemic like SARS or Avian flu. Now SARS has a higher mortality rate compared to regular flu. That's why it has so much attention.

The other thing is that it is highly contagious... but that's just like any flu <.<...

The "H1N1" describes the surface molecules, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Since the virus's key to infect cells is by having the right surface molecules that will bind to your cell's surface molecules, the flu viruses are referred to their H and N's. There should be 7 major types of H and N's.

For the swine flu, there really isn't too much to worry about. It is like any flu, but is contracted from pigs... which is understandably scarier, as u'd never know what disease we may get from pigs, in which we normally wouldn't get, so our immune system will be completely useless. (but this isn't the case, fortunately)

Also, there is an antiviral drug right now that works against swine flu. It's supposed to be an old antibody serum or smth. I'm not sure.

I think a lot of people are getting upset cuz their pigs are sick.

But the question is, if you catch bird flu, and swine flu, does that mean pigs can fly?

Oh god, I feel like every topic in null gets ruined now too quick