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 .

[Habbibu]

All public bodies have been asked to develop pandemic flu plans - I work in a university, and we've had this in progress for well over a year - more like two or three, I think. It's not a response to anything particularly recent, more than we're "due" a pandemic.

That level of preparedness should be more reassuring than worrying, tbh!

Handwashing and use of disposable tissues (carefully disposed of) useful first defences, apparently.

[KayHarkerInTheBackOfTheQuattro]

Mildly roffling at this thread.

The best pig-flu advice is http://www.vanessalebourdais.com/images/Don'tPanicLG.jpg here

[KayHarkerInTheBackOfTheQuattro]

oh sod

[MsMargotBeauregarde]

at least you're in the UK where there is some sort of plan in place.

[Habbibu]

Never mind laughing, Kay. I have to Make Plans about this kind of thing. I have Folders about it.

[pooter]

well i am off to do a whopping online order for my disaster preparedness kit - which i started when DS was born, but kind of got waylaid with life... This has spurred me on. There will be beans a plenty in the pooter household

And i'd rather people thought i was daft and stockpile beans than have it actually happen and kick myself for not following my survivalist instincts.

[MsMargotBeauregarde]

What should we buy? Bottled water. tick. sterile wipes? masks? where do you get those masks? do those masks do any good?

[cherryblossoms]

Hmmm.

So, all the disaster-preparers - I have a question: So we get knocked back to the Dark Ages by this ...erm ... swine flu. What will we use for currency?

I've read lots of journo accounts of packing and preparing for stints in chaotic countries and they always say that they pack cigarettes for currency.

But I have noticed that mn is very judgey about nicotine.

What are you all going to do?

[onagar]

I'm not going to panic until the government tell us not to. That's always a bad sign.

I expect new diseases pop up all the time and yet the world never ends. I think most of the epidemics in the past were at least partly because of poor health generally and poor living conditions/hygiene.

I expect masks might work a bit, but the main point is to have enough food and water to just stay inside until everyone has died who is going to

No harm in stocking up on non-perishable items, but if you're going to then buy stuff you will use eventually. It might even save some money if they go up in price later.

[GentleOtter]

Call me cynical but the government always release some sort of wild panic/scare story when they themselves are up to no good. It takes the heat off themselves...

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

thread on subject also here

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Seriously though, the biggest threat from this virus, even if it does become widespread, is peoples reaction to it. Fear has far more reaching consequences than any virus. Most of planning goes into dealing with the consequences of fear and theres an awful lot we can do as individuals to stop that.

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

"Schools, museums and libraries have been closed across the Mexican capital's region and people are being urged to avoid shaking hands or sharing crockery. "

From the OP's link.

Museums? Wow, what's different about Mexican museums?

[Habbibu]

Just places where people gather, I reckon, and which can be closed without disrupting any major services.

[TwoIfBySea]

And remember, the ordinary flu kills thousands every year so it isn't like this would be an unusual event. Are you all getting 2012 fever or something? Its not the end of the world - yet.

[cutekids]

I heard on SKY that the children-in America-who have all been tested for it and have more than likely got it-are actually not too ill.They think that this means there could actually be another virus in Mexico which is causing confusion there.

[MatthewBellamysMuse]

A BA flight attendant has been hospitalised after arriving at Heathrow on a flight from Mexico City. He has flu-like symptoms...

[MatthewBellamysMuse]

Gentleotter, the government didn't release this story. They have no control over stories about possible pandemics in Mexico. It actually came from the Associated press, the American news agency.

[MatthewBellamysMuse]

I know this because I am journalist and I've been working on this blinkin' story all day.

[boredwithmyoldname]

matthew.. your job as a journalist is to inject the required level of cynicism -- so get going!

[expatinscotland]

Yes! Because believe it or not, one of these days, we are all going to die.

[expatinscotland]

My father's mother lost her first husband, who was only 21, and her first child, a two-year-old daughter, to Spanish Flu in Mexico.

She managed to survive the disease.

Strangely enough, there was a time when our family all got a strain of Hong Kong flu that had been avian and then swine.

But my father did not get it.

I wonder if she didn't pass something onto him that made him immune.

[RaspberryBlower]

I don't know anything about how viruses behave, but I have been to Mexico city and have seen that it is an extremely densely populated place with I think about 25 million inhabitants.

If there have been 1000 cases, this doesn't seem like a particularly quick spread to me. I would expect something highly contagious to affect more people than that in such an environment. However, I may be wrong.