WHO Declares H1N1's Spread Officially a Pandemic 368
juggledean writes "The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting, according to reports. It means the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world with rising cases being seen in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile." Whether it's called a pandemic or not, there's a hopeful note in the story about H1N1's spread: "...there were people who believed we might be in a kind of apocalyptic situation and what we're really seeing now with H1N1 is that in most cases the disease is self-limiting."
Obvious (Score:5, Funny)
WHO Declares H1N1's Spread Officially a Pandemic
I don't know, I'm asking YOU!
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<Lucent> who?
<Thumb> center for disease control
<Lucent> i said WHO
<Thumb> what? i'm asking you
<Lucent> World Health Organization
http://www.bash.org/?4780
Re:Obvious (Score:5, Funny)
CDC?
No. I'm too far inland.
wrong category for story (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly, this should have been an "Ask Slashdot"
WHAT's on second (Score:3, Funny)
... and I DON'T KNOW is on third.
Let's just get that out of the way first and foremost.
Re:WHAT's on second (Score:5, Funny)
... and I DON'T KNOW is on third.
Let's just get that out of the way first and foremost.
But what's the name of the band on stage?
Who.
The name of the band.
Who.
No, I want to know who's on stage.
Yes.
So you're saying Yes is on stage?
No, Yes isn't even at this concert.
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No I don't see The Band, that's a different group entirely.
On stage, Skippy. Look, see the band?
No I don't.
Get rid of those John Lennon glasses and look! There, there's the band!
No, that's not The Band. The Band is performing later on. Who's on stage.
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WHat no Guess Who jokes?
Re:WHAT's on second (Score:5, Funny)
Person #1 - Knock knock.
Person #2 - Who's there?
Person #1 - Yes, and they just declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting.
...I don't get it.
Re:WHAT's on second (Score:5, Insightful)
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Let's just get that out of the way first and foremost.
Why?
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Obligatory Simpsons: "Yes, not the pronoun, but rather a player with the unlikely name, Who, is on first."
"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Funny)
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That's genius! I live in a small town, so the supermarket's always out of the bacon I like.
*Logs in to facbeook, and starts spamming about swine flu to local friends and family in a gloomy tone*
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I will do my best to support you; occasionally my local Grocery Outlet gets a case or two of some no-nitrate/nitrite bacon, I can only imagine driving down the demand in the primary market will increase the supply at my local one...
Re:"H1N1" (Score:4, Insightful)
Yay for corrupt protectionism! We have to make it illegal to call things what they are to protect the industrialists who own Congress! Yay!
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Informative)
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> I *do* know that H1N1 is not a very specific name ...
> in light of this I think a more appropriate name would be "Mexican Flu".
DOES NOT COMPUTE
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BIO TREK II: The Wrath of Chan (Score:2)
I say we call it the "Wrath of Chan" [photobucket.com]
Chhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Indeed it would be appropriate, although human idiocy knows no bounds. H1N1 is a neutral, politically correct, idiocy-avoiding name. There you have the Egyptian Government culling a ridiculous number of swine, just to show that the government was doing something, but hey, its "Swine Flu", swines must die! , Not to mention the Chinese Government confining Mexican Tourists -healthy Mexican Tourists, mind you- just because they were Mexican.
The reasoning was similar, "Hey, its the Mexican Flu, let's quarantine
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Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
With the politically correct liberal media, we can't have that name or it will possibly hurt the tourism in Mexico.
You mean more than their continual reporting of violence including beheadings in Mexico, which has claimed only one tourist life... and there are indications that he was actually there on some sort of nefarious business?
The liberal news media is a conservative myth.
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-- New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt on the MoveOn.org ad, Sept. 23, 2007
"Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? Of course it is."
-- headline and first paragraph of column by New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent, July 25, 2004
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Funny)
"The liberal news media is a conservative myth" is a liberal media myth.
The "liberal media news is a conservative myth is a liberal media myth" is a conservative myth.
OH NO! WE'VE ENTERED INFINITE RECURSION!
Re:"H1N1" (Score:4, Funny)
At least make it semi-readable.
recText() {
if [ $1 -gt 1 ];
then
i=`expr $1 - 1`
if [ $(($1 % 2 )) -eq 0 ];
then j=`echo \"$2 is a liberal myth\"`
else j=`echo \"$2 is a conservative myth\"`
fi
k=`recText $i "$j"`
echo $k
else echo $2
fi
}
echo "The `recText 10 "liberal media news"`"
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
The news media is an entertainment media myth.
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The news media is an entertainment media myth.
Sir, I doff my hat to thee.
In response to those who say that reporters self-identifying as liberal is relevant, please consider the economic reality of what is published and how it is edited before making ignorant remarks like that... as I failed to do when I referred to the 'news media' as if it were there to report the news or something.
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"The liberal news media is a conservative myth is a liberal media myth" is a conservative myth.
Fun! Who's got the next one?
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Fun! Who's got the next one?
No. Who Declared H1N1's Spread Officially a Pandemic.
Pay attention!
-dZ.
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"Who Declared H1N1's Spread Officially a Pandemic." is a liberal media myth.
So there.
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But they'll try to make every feel better about it by mentioning that, of course, their own world view and the way they want things like elections to wind up would never influence their editorial and reporting decisions, ever, ever, ever. No sirree.
And they'd Rather quit than have it influence their fact-checking too.
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
Just ask the majority of reporters and news producers, who explicitly identify themselves as left-leaning and left-voting.
Just ask the majority of owners of news organizations, who explicitly identify themselves as right-leaning and right-voting.
Ya well (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ya well (Score:5, Funny)
Although it will probably hurt your chances of getting some thick Mexican pipe, consider avoiding the virus entirely and not applying rouge.
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Funny)
Not to mention, didn't the virus origionaly originate in the US?
I vote we call it 'Freedom Flu'. :)
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Precisely why I want this to happen. I'm booking a trip to Cabo this summer.
Re:"H1N1" (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think naming it the "Mexican Flu" is going to hurt the tourism to Mexico any more than the knowledge that the strain did, in fact, originate in Mexico and the massive number of reported cases in Mexico already have. And besides, as I mentioned, there is a precedent.
plus_M, I've talked to people who still think that you can get it from eating pork products. People in general are stupid, and these same people are the ones who avoided Toronto when SARS hit.
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Yeah, you don't get it by eating pork. that's how you get tapeworms. you get swine flu by porking pigs.
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Yeah, you don't get it by eating pork. that's how you get tapeworms. you get swine flu by porking pigs.
Giggity.
Re:"H1N1" (Score:4, Funny)
I've talked to people who still think that you can get it from eating pork products. People in general are stupid, and these same people are the ones who avoided Toronto when SARS hit.
Over the last 5 years more people have been killed in the US by swine flu than by terrorists. If you buy into terrorism fear-mongering, as so many people seem to do along with just about the entire news reporting industry, it's no surprise people would buy into all kinds of crazy fears about swine flue.
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Delete the word "swine" from his post and it's true for any stretch of time you care to contemplate.
disinformation (Score:5, Funny)
I've talked to people who still think that you can get it from eating pork products.
We've got to put a stop to this ignorance. You cannot get the disease that way -- but you CAN get revenge!
Re:"H1N1" (Score:4, Informative)
'Infuenza A H1N1' is really no more specific than just 'H1N1', since all H1N1 flu viruses are Influenza A. There doesn't seem to be a generally agreed name that's both snappy and specific, so you'll see things like 'Novel H1N1 Influenza' and '2009 A/H1N1'. Virologists use more detailed identifiers for individual isolates, like 'A/New York/3002/2009(H1N1)'.
Think of the Trees... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Its the worst in California with all the lawyers masquerading as environmentalists.
Honestly the best thing for the environment is the CONSERVATIONISTS rather than the environmentalists who live in LA or San Francisco and take weekend trips to the napa valley to "be one with nature", nevermind the fact that the "No tree should be cut ever, no brush should be cleared ever" policy they screech and sue for has cost millions of dollars of taxpayer money (the money California spends fighting the yearly fires caus
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For years, and years in the United States we fought forest fires in an absolute manner. When you see a fire, put it out completely, ASAP. And slowly fuel that should have burned built up. Until eventually the fires that did break out were so intense that they couldn't fight them anymore. Now that the world population is approaching 7 billion, am I the only one who finds this analogy terrifying?
If we left our dead to rot at our feet, I might be concerned. Yes, I know, we're the fuel, and viruses the fire; but we're like dry brush and tinder that can move, wet itself down when it sees fire in the distance, build firewalls, make back-fires, etc.
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Yes you are...
Because when we save an infant or an elderly person from the flu they don't wait for the next flu to come around. They either grow up and get a better immune system or they eventually die of something else.
We don't have a backlog of pensioners and infants who didn't die of the flu before just waiting until the flu comes round again so they can die of it, They don't pile up like dry old logs and brush.
WHO?... (Score:2)
Symptoms (Score:5, Funny)
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I smell European insidfe joke here... explain...
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Interesting, so what is the plural then of rasher? Rashers or just plain bacon?
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2010 - Year of the **** (Score:4, Funny)
Don't know if this is just a sick coincidence but....
2007 - Chinese year of the Chicken - Bird Flu Pandemic devastates parts of Asia
2008 - Chinese year of the Horse - Equine Influenza decimates Australian racing
2009 - Chinese year of the Pig - Swine Flu Pandemic kills hundreds of pigs around the globe.
Has any one else noticed this?
It gets worse........
next year......
2010 - Chinese year of the Cock - what could possibly go wrong?
Re:2010 - Year of the **** (Score:5, Informative)
That would be a great observation except that:
2007 - Chinese year of the Boar
2008 - Chinese year of the Rat
2009 - Chinese year of the Ox
So next year, we should be worried about Tiger Flu.
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Re:2010 - Year of the **** (Score:5, Funny)
So next year, we should be worried about Tiger Flu.
Don't worry, I hear it's gonna be GRRRRRREAT!
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Would be interesting IF that actually was the cycle of the chinese year.
However, as an AC already pointed out, this is the year of the ox, last year was rat, next is tiger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology [wikipedia.org]
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I am -so- looking forward to the year of the Dragon now.
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Just because I'm a total skeptic, but I still like to get my facts about totally absurd pseudoscience right, I checked and 2009 was not the year of the pig.
Just making that clear.
News for alarmist douches... (Score:3, Informative)
Douches,
Pandemics refer to a disease's spread, not its severity.
The common cold is also a pandemic.
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Funny, I don't see "The Cold" anywhere on this list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics [wikipedia.org]
Editing for alarmists (Score:2)
Whether it's called a pandemic or not, [...] we might be in a kind of apocalyptic situation and what we're really seeing now with H1N1 is that in most cases the disease is [...]."
Fun with selective editing!
Jumping the gun (Score:2, Insightful)
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wasn't the black plague an epidemic?
Re:Jumping the gun (Score:5, Informative)
Er, the 1918 flu pandemic started as a mild but very infectious disease. Then, come autumn, it killed more people than WW1. And mostly young people at that.
Furthermore, maybe you should look up what the word "pandemic" actually means. They're using it correctly. You're not.
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Re:Jumping the gun (Score:4, Insightful)
The vast majority of infection and death happened after WW1, so you're wrong about that.
Another difference from those times to now is air travel, which can see infection spread vastly quicker.
Regarding the meaning of the word "pandemic", I'll take the technical description of people working in that field, thanks very much, and not yours.
The reason I stated that your definition of the word was wrong was not the mentioned of the Black Death, but the "REAL" (sic, in caps) qualifier, suggesting that in your head you have a cut-off death toll for your special definition of the word. This was sorta the point of your post.
But aside from the ad hominems, caps and lack of logic, keep it up, you're doing great.
I work at a hospital... (Score:3, Insightful)
... and the nurses spend a lot of time rolling their eyes about this. Or as one of the doctors put it, "Replace 'H1N1' with 'bad cold.'"
Yes, it's killed a number of people. But not as many (in the same timespan) as, say, cars, or industrial accidents, or smoking, or cancer, or heart disease, or drug violence, or drugs themselves, or the US military, or suicide, or old age, or AIDS, or plane crashes, or....
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Yes, it's killed a number of people. But not as many (in the same timespan) as, say, cars, or industrial accidents, or smoking, or cancer, or heart disease, or drug violence, or drugs themselves, or the US military, or suicide, or old age, or AIDS, or plane crashes, or....
...or your regular yearly flu epidemic... [cnn.com]
Re:I work at a hospital... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm worried about all those too. This store is about H1N1 though. Just because it's not the top of the list doesn't mean it isn't worthy of mass hysteria.
Weakens Pandemic (Score:3, Informative)
In the technical sense it is a disease that is widespread and uncontained; but if this is the benchmark then the common cold and normal flu ought to be raised to this level too, because they have the same wide spreadness and are most dangerous to the same classes of people, the elderly, children and those with immune issues. Every single year the "poultry (normal)" flu kills many, many more people in the exact same way and in the exact same circumstances.
This is only getting attention because of the media hype. The left wants more money to expand government to deal with it, and the right wants money to build a fence to keep things like this from coming from Mexico into the US, and the media is psyched because it's new, has political tie-ins, and came when the meltdown was becoming old-news.
Not only that, are we really surprised? Pigs are biologically similar enough to humans that we use pig organs for some transplants. Having infections that cross the species barrier in this way seem blatantly obvious.
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No one is surprised that a pig specific flu strain can leap to humans. Absolutely no one who knows anything about viruses, so it's kinda odd that you even try to make that point.
This is a very infectious novel flu virus which is spreading during summer in America and Europe (unusually). A disease which mutates rapidly. A disease to which very few have any immunity from catching. Thus far, it's not looking too different from how the 1918 flu pandemic started. And that killed tens of millions of healthy young
Stop being such whiny babies (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it a pandemic in the disease spread methodology? Yes.
Is it killing millions of people each year? No.
Is it killing thousands of people each year? No.
Is it killing slightly more than any typical flu does? Yes.
Solution? Wash your hands with hot water (not scalding) and non-antibiotic soap (e.g. Ivory hand soap). Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze, using a sleeve if you have no tissue.
That literally cuts the infection rate dramatically.
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to my medical research.
Some Legitemate Worry (Score:2, Informative)
it IS a pandemic (Score:5, Interesting)
just not particularly lethal
in 1918, the same thing happened: the flu appeared in the spring, outside its usual pattern of appearing in the fall, and then percolated all summer, just below the radar, expanding stealthily but inevitable everywhere
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm [cdc.gov]
then (in the northern hemisphere, it would explode in the cold months of the spring in the southern hemisphere) the flu exploded in the fall, and killed millions that winter. this is inevitable with flu because the flu virus actually survives in cold air for a longer period of time
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/health/05flu.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=login [nytimes.com]
so the summer months deaden its spread (really, just slow down its spread) so that it spreads stealthily but inevitably, while the winter months allow it to flourish and explode, seemingly everywhere at the same time (because the summer months allowed to actually go everywhere, just in small little clusters everywhere)
its also important to note that flu in 1918 killed at a very low rate, like under 1% of its victims. whatever strain dominates this winter, will be the real issue. will it have a 0.0003% mortality rate? or a 0.3% mortality rate? we're talking about the difference of tens of millions of lives in that difference, and no one knows what that mortality rate will be, since its such tiny little variations and random chance of one mutation dominating or another at work here
so beware false alarmism, and beware false complacency. this virus is a genuine unknown quantity. it really could kill a lot this winter, it could really completely fizzle out. both anyone freaking out, or completely blase and lackadaisacal about the whole thing, are fooling themselves
an unknown is an unknown is an unknown. neither false complacency or false alarmism is an appropriate response to that
Damn! (Score:2)
Pandemic is not covered by Insurance Companies (Score:2, Interesting)
Most of them, do not cover pandemic cases.
Check your insurance contract.
Cheers!
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Re:Let's play a word game (Score:4, Funny)
While we're talking about animal diseases, what about german measles?
Re:Let's play a word game (Score:5, Funny)
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"Mad cow == bird flu == swine flu == HORSESHIT."
You might have expressed it better, but you....are correct.
MRSA has a vastly higher body count than all the above, but since it is often spread by poor hygiene at hospitals it gets low billing.
http://www.protomag.com/assets/a-killer-called-staph [protomag.com]
http://www.symptomsmrsa.com/ca-mrsa/ca-mrsa-death-count-surpassing-aids/ [symptomsmrsa.com]
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heic/patient/mrsa/ [hopkinsmedicine.org]
Overreaction (Score:5, Interesting)
But it IS an overreaction. It's only NOT an overreaction if you're: a politician who is desperately trying to get the public to look the other way, to funnel more public money into private hands... a bureaucrat who is trying to get a promotion by "doing something" and is also very concerned about being labeled as passive if the final tally is 1% higher than normal... or a scientist who is desperately trying to grab more funding or a contract for his very own vaccine-making company.
It's a paradise for self-interest (and OF self-interest, as well).
With something like less than 500 deaths worldwide, this is the average equivalent of 3 days worth of seasonal flu... and considering that this virus has had a chance to spread for the past 2 months, I simply cannot fathom it being any more damaging than whatever seasonal flu strain is circulating in the world right now.
Yet all we get are headlines such as "27'000 infected". Well... how about 500'000 dead?! Cause that's what seasonal flu did last year. Put that in a headline and smoke it.
Re:Overreaction (Score:5, Insightful)
"Pandemic" is not a word which implies anything about lethality or how "damaging" the strain is.
The WHO declaring H1N1 pandemic is not overreaction, hyperbole or scaremongering. The particular strain has reached a specified spread at which point it qualifies for that label.
Now, the news media's choice of tone and language in reporting on H1N1 is another matter entirely.
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Fair point. The problem is that sometimes language can be a little funny in that the public understanding of a certain word becomes so heavily diluted with popular stigma, that it loses its descriptiveness. For reference, we can consider the word "theory".
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The level 6 pandemic declaration signifies that the WHO believes containment and eradication of the pathogen is not a possible scenario. This means the total number of infected will steadily increase. Exposed individuals will be prescribed bed rest instead of antivirals as supplies become limited to health care workers. A(H1N1) will become a widespread strain of the flu and some day a year, or 2 years or 5 years from now, YOU will contract it and its low (but higher
Re:/. vs. WHO (Score:5, Interesting)
The WHO claims they are making this level 6 because it is spreading globally and it has nothing to do with the severity. So why don't they do this for any seasonal flu that spreads globally every year?
If you read the legal definitions of what the WHO can do when it is level 6 is very scary. They can take your property, forcibly vaccinate you, quarantine you for an indefinite amount of time all with zero proof of anything.
The few people who have actually died and had swine flu were all very ill before they were infected.
Now for some comedy. [photobucket.com]
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The WHO claims they are making this level 6 because it is spreading globally...
Bah. It's now level six because it camped respawn spots and got the required XP to level.
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I'm not saying your wrong, I'm not saying you're right, but...according to the fine article,
So the WHO seems to be using a different definition than you are for pandemics.
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The raised alert is due to the spread in Australia. There are now over 1200 confirmed cases here, with over 1000 of these in the state of Victoria. This is probably a measure of the effectiveness of testing, and our public health system. There are 4 patients in Vic who are in intensive care, but these are all people who "have pre-existing conditions that put them at very high risk". Although it hasn't been stated I wouldn't be surprised if these people have HIV/AIDS or some other serious disorder.
Most c