Swine Flu. Are we in big trouble with this then?

[Meglet]

This sounds worse than the bird flu that thankfully never really happened.

news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_news/top_stories/801/80183/story8018356.shtml?

Sky news have a press conference on now about possible cases in new york. When do we start panic buying .

Yes it's not so much that there is a big volcano in Yellowstone but rather that Yellowstone is the volcano (all 3 and a half thousand square miles of it!)

Maybe there's some good advice here: what we can learn from Survivors about surviving a pandemic

Have just returned from briefing at work and Doctors have been issued with masks and suits etc to deal with potential cases...although don't think they'd really protect us much!

We are a stone's throw from first Scottish people who have tested positive but I saw only a few people today who have been in contact with them or who have "flu" symptoms and were panicking...certainly compared to bird flu anyway.

dear lord, that humorous Survivor's link, led me to a cheery little homily of doom by a Dr and thus to a site citing hiddeous side effects of tamiflu.
Thanks, feel so much better now!

Not only Yellowstone - there's a enormous lump of rock off under the sea near the Azores, which if it fell off the water would apparently cause a tidal wave that would annihilate southern England and the Eastern Seaboard of the US (so not all bad then ) - this has been teetering for millenia and could go at a any time, so who knows aht will get us first?

Bur according to Horizon we are due a...magnetic pole swap which will knock out all satellites...another ice-age...an eruption in yellowstone the like of which will annihilate the US...ooh as will the tsunami off San Francisco, either that or the earthquake...an asteroid hit etc and millions will die...umm what else are we due..oh yea a flu pandemic....sigh!

hold on we were were all going to die of AIDs, avian flu, mad cows and an apocalypse due to the millenium bug.

anyone got any other sandwich boards we can walk around with..." we're all doomed" stockpile candles in luv!!

I just had a very odd phonecall where no one spoke but I could hear the news report about the swine flu very loudly in the background

I hung up and did 1471 and the number was withheld....scary lol

your names quite apt isn't it?

..hold on, just remembered the terrorist dirty bomb which will nuke us all...quick get in more tins of tuna!

Lol yeah it is rather, although tbh the whole thing has pretty much gone over my head so far.

I might panic if they stop flights to Spain as we go on holiday there in 4 weeks.

yes that's frustrating isn't it. I think pandemics will probably come under the heading act of god so won't be covered. grrrr.

I was relaxed about this yesterday but I've just been watching bbc 24. Omg. It's a 4 on the WHO pandemic alert level.

It's always atleast at a level 3 though is it not?

My concern is the economy. I just don't understand what happens if workplaces, schools, public places etc shut like in Mexico City.

Do people still get paid in the circumstances? Despite the companies not making any money? Or do people just get statutory sick pay, which the government would pay for? Either way, it's really not good for business.

In terms of hols, I heard on the radio today that if you've booked a package (ATOL protected) then you will get your money back but if you've booked independently then you won't. I think this realated to Mexican trips though...probably doesn't cover Spain quite yet

They reckon if it turns into a pandemic it will hit 4 in 10 of us in the UK, if it doesn't happen now there is still a chance it will turn into one from September onwards as the flu season restarts, but by then we should have a vaccine.

Aren't you forgetting what will happen when Mount Tiede in, of all places, Tenerife, erupts?

Tsunamis, etc.

I'm just wondering how long a pandemic is likely to go on for. As in, will we still be worrying about this in the autumn? Next year? What's the timescale usually?

I know plague lasted about a year but there were only about 300 people in the world back then innit.

I had to go to the pharmacist today to get some more little cap thingys for our ear thermometer and the (quite fit actually ) pharmacist was telling me about the 6 people he'd had in asking for face masks today I asked him if all the hypochondriacs had been out in force today and he said no but he fully expected it by the end of the week
So says ll, who is feeling distinctly dodgy. If I'm not back in a day or two, send the pigs out to look for me

Some doomsayers are saying 2009 will be the summer of hell with some kind of tidal wave event all round the world
Just hope its a nice hot summer for a change

I read that the likeliehood is it will wane slightly, then return with a vengeance in the winter Viruses terrify me- I worry about it mutating into a more virulent strain, but have to just hope that doesn't happen. I think reading Stephen King's "The Stand" at a relatively early age has imprinted slightly too much on my brain, though! Can't help swithering between constructive panic (mixing less with people, avoiding large groups, hand-washing obsessively) and taking a what-will-be-will-be standpoint. I guess we really have no choice but to wait and see what it will do. have to say, I don't have complete confidence in the "preparedness" of the government and NHS, although I want to believe they do have a handle on it..

The plagues peak lasted a year, but it actually took 20 years for it to disappear.

No idea of the timescale for this though. I give it 2 weeks.

I guess we don't need to worry about the collapse of the sterling economy if we've stockpiled enough choc, booze, fags, nylons and lipstick. It also means that, should one wish, one could see in the Armageddon in style, belly full of choc, fag in one hand, G and T in the other, dolled up like a blowsy good time girl.