Went to the doctor today...

[scienceteacher]

...(about something completely different) and chatted in passing about SF. She was scathing about it - saying that it is just a big con by the government to hide the mess the country is in. Obviously it does exist, but we are the only country that is getting hysterical about it, it seems.

She also thinks it ridiculous and wrong to give out Relenza to pregnant women given that it is untested. Same with the vaccine when it is developed.

oh conspiracy theory - coo-el!

i've been reading some interesting conspiracy theories about it!

Are the WHO in on it?

That is what I have thought for a while now

What about the Beijing reaction?

agree about the vaccine but I think actually UK has been [typically] blase about this whole thing and that is why it is escalating so fast. Rest of Europe nowhere near as many cases as us or fatalities. Important not to panic but equally important not to be dismissive and careless. I don't think this does suit the govt at moment, as if they have to consider further measures it is going to hurt the economy, and they'll avoid that at all cost, even if it could potentially save lives.

I agree, ST. The US has it big time, but no one's getting as hysterical about it. It's been headlining BBC news for days. Am I surprised? No, not from them.

My Dr won't prescribe Relenza for the reason that it is untested.

Has Tamiflu been tested/licenced? DD is taking it!

It's a quiet news week... can't lead on the 40th anniversary of the moon landings

I agree. I have wondered for days what bad news the government are trying to hide.

I think Tamiflu has been around a fair bit longer than Relenza - but may well be wrong, just what I remember!

expat - just to echo your comment. Spoke to a friend in the States who has a problem with health anxiety and family members with asthma - so was expecting her to be very concerned with swine flu. She was amazed at the coverage here as it's not a leading story there at all.

I just checked out a couple of US news sites and there was nothing.

Unfortunately may have set her off googling the UK press though .

I used to post on a US infertility/ttc site, and went to 'visit' yesterday...fully expecting some sort of discussion, at least. Not a sausage.

Are you on lists for people with health problems, riven?

I can see that.

But truthfully, it's not leading the news over there. But they have had LOTS of cases.

I think that a lot of the States are over the worst of the first wave. Places like NY had a big surge. But schools close much earlier over there for the summer. Whilst there are outbreaks in summer camps I don't think there are the huge clusters (which tend to be school based) now like we are seeing. Perhaps it will die down a bit here over the summer too.

Worth looking towards places like Australia, New Zealand Chile, Argentina to see how other countries with huge surges are coping.

I read the papers from Argentina every day and I can assure you it is getting massive coverage there, mainly because around 140 people have died. Schools throughout the country shut two weeks early for the winter holidays, pregnant women were sent home from work for three weeks, all theatres shut for 10 days, people are being advised to stay away from crowds and even not share the national drink mate with each other (you drink out of the same straw).

The health minister from the largest province said at the weekend that Argentinians were going to have to get used to the idea that this will affect the country for the next three or four years because countries in the northern hemisphere will nab all the vaccine for themselves.

So yes, it's not just the British making a big deal of it.

We were over in NY near the start of the SF thing, when the US was being hit hardest, or so it seemed. However, despite watching their news channels a lot and seeing the newspaper it really did not take over the media in the way it has here. And here it is still continuing all over the press.

Sari - thats really interesting. Thank you for posting about it