OT.. Swine Flu, are you taking any precautions?

[LinkC]

I think it will run its course and then Mr Obama will step forward and announce that he and big government whupped it good.

Shouldn't that announcement also claim that he's healed the sick and raised the dead?

[Georgio]

I have tuned up my motorcycle and changed the oil, just in case the planet changes into a scene from the Road Warrior!

[fuzzy96]

swine flew? lol '
i alwys said "yeah right , when pigs fly"
are you guys sayying they do now?
omg is the end near?

[kteague]

In Cincinnati flying pigs have an almost cult following.

My 18 year old grandson has horrible seasonal allergies, and it's been rainy and hot this week so he's miserable with sinus congestion and coughing, just like every year at this time. Yesterday they sent him home from school. He didn't consider allergies a reason to stay home. Oh well. I guess better safe than sorry.

[john_dozer]

I have a small dry cough going from something. Had it for a few days so its not this flu. My apartment complex has a bunch of ornamental trees that are flowering right now that I know I'm allergic to. Fortunately this only lasts about 5 days. So I suspect that's the cause.

Its interesting to see people freak out when I do cough though.

[luke]

We have a couple of guys at work who have had a real bad cough for years. Nobody says a thing to them.
It's a denial thing around here.

Flu ?......what Flu ?



Bill

[yardbird]

I work at a university. It's a veritable petri dish. TONS of international students. My wife is a librarian at a middle school. ANOTHER petri dish. Generally a classroom teacher gets exposed to the kids in her classroom. My wife gets to see all of the kids in the school.

Swine flu precautions? Probably not anything extraordinary except perhaps a bit more vigilance, but we're always using hand sanitizer and wiping stuff down as a normal activity throughout the day just because of our work environments. Not like ... germophobic ... just common sense I think.

[bdp522]

I work in the nurses office at the local High school. Talk about being exposed to sick kids! The only extra precautions we take are to try and get the kids to wash their hands and cover their mouths. You would think by this age they would already know this! We already wipe everything down regularly with antibacterial wipes and try to keep the sick kids away from the whiners. Biggest problem; Parents who send kids to school with fevers, vomiting, etc.

Brenda

[sagesteve]

Rest any fear! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... e-Flu.aspx takes a bit to download site.

[tattooyu]

Just washing my hands a little more and maybe avoiding confined spaces with a lot of people. Other than that... BAU.

[Babette]

Oh, I most definitely am taking precautions.

My mother just came back from Mexico Sunday night. I have not seen her yet. I am only communicating with her via email. I won't even call her. Just in case. She says she's fine. I'm not taking any chances.

(For those that don't know, my mother is a royal Pain in the A**, and avoiding her has become a real art form for me. Genius, funny, actually well-intentioned, but a Royal PITA nonetheless.)

LOL,
B.

[kebsa]

Just washing hands a lot more than usual and carrying around a bottle of hand sanitizer, i always have a small bottle in my bag- i found that when i became wheelchair dependant i seemed to pick up more illnesses such as gastroenteritis, colds etc. and at first i thought it was because of a health decline but eventually it was pointed out that when you use a wheelchair you might as well be walking on your hands- you contact a lot of unsanitary conditions! so these days i use the hand cleaners a lot and will just use them more than usual

i will avoid crowded public places as much as i can too. I am glad you mentioned the fact that parents send their sick kids to school at the detriment to others- I think many of us could relate to someone coming to work when they should not have and suddenly there is a run of sick leave as others cop the same bug- if you are sick, or your kid is sick, be considerate enough to stay home- the kids should not be made to go to school when they feelcrummy anyway! when i lost my leg 13 years ago, i spent 4 months in hospital and most of that was in a rehab ward for amputees, most amputees tend to be older or have chronic illness that have led to limb loss rather than accident- that means that they are more vulnerable to certain bugs- it was flu season and one of the nurses turned up for 3 shifts in a row when she obviously had the flu and should not have been there- i even commented on it to her and she said that they always go a hard time for calling in sick, her contract was almost up for renewel so she did not want to take the risk of sick leave. within days several of the patients had the same symptoms, i came down with it too and can only say that i felt absolutely gastly!! unfortunately 2 of the elderly patients died from the flu- one was the man in the room next to me- obviously i can't be sure that it all stemmed from that nurse but that is the most obvious and it was a very good illustration of why people need to think of other when it comes to these kinds of things, just imagine someone sends their sick kid to school, the kid passes the bug to a teacher who has a family member who is debilitated from a serious illness- it could be tragic all because someone did not want to have to worry about taking time off work to look after a sick child. My friends little boy had leukemia and was in preschool, she go so worried about what he could pick up from the other kids she had to pull him out from preschool- i'll get off my high horse now! it just something that makes me angry- people are scared of the bird flu or this current one because it attacks everyone- but in "normal" years there are so many illnesses that go round that are nuisance factor for most but for the debilitated or chronically ill they can be a death sentance- just last week there was a piece on TV about the drop in the number of kids being immunised against things like whooping cough and i guess that is a parents choice but the sad thing is that now we are seeing more whooping cough and the piece was about a 5 week old baby who contracted it because she was too young to be immunised but had come in contact with it- they showed film of that poor little one coughing and gasping for 20 minutes at a time, eventually she had brain damage and died of heart failure - the same piece had a women who advocated deliberately exposing your kids to these diseases to get immunity rather than vaccinating and i know that is what was done when i was a kid- if one kid got the measles all the other kids were sent to play so that everyone get it over and done with at the same time- absolute madness!

[Babette]

I work in the nurses office at the local High school. Talk about being exposed to sick kids! The only extra precautions we take are to try and get the kids to wash their hands and cover their mouths. You would think by this age they would already know this! We already wipe everything down regularly with antibacterial wipes and try to keep the sick kids away from the whiners. Biggest problem; Parents who send kids to school with fevers, vomiting, etc.

Brenda

BTW....

HAPPY SCHOOL NURSES' DAY NEXT WEEK!!!!

Nice present we got you, huh? A Flu Pandemic. Niiiiiiiicccccce.........

Huggers,
B. - Secretary to Poor Starving Overburdened School Nurses

[tgzlavistane]

Some good advice from our Vice President Joe Biden.

Joe Biden’s swine flu advice
Vice President Joe Biden was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the “verbal slip-ups he’s famous for,” said Alex Koppelman in Salon. But “that streak ended” Thursday morning when, on NBC’s “Today” show, Biden said he told relatives to stay away from airplanes and subways to avoid the swine flu. That may be solid medical advice, “but it certainly isn't the picture of calm” the administration wants to project. (watch Joe Biden’s swine flu comments on “Today”)

If Biden “sent you into a panic,” you’re not alone, said Chris Rovzar in New York. It sent his staff into a panic, too. “They rushed out a statement ‘clarifying’ his remarks,” insisting that Biden meant people should “avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico”—where the outbreak has hit hardest—and stay out of confined public spaces if they’re sick. “That's sound, reasonable advice,” but it’s not what Biden said.

Twisting Biden’s words into “something more sensible” is never easy, said Jennifer Rubin in Commentary. But it’s impossible to fix this “mega-gaffe,” which will cost far more than the $300,000 in lost travel and business disruptions caused by the scary Air Force One New York fly-over. Let’s hope President Obama sends Biden away on the funeral circuit before he does more damage.

[DreamStalker]

Some good advice from our Vice President Joe Biden.

Joe Biden’s swine flu advice
Vice President Joe Biden was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the “verbal slip-ups he’s famous for,” said Alex Koppelman in Salon. But “that streak ended” Thursday morning when, on NBC’s “Today” show, Biden said he told relatives to stay away from airplanes and subways to avoid the swine flu. That may be solid medical advice, “but it certainly isn't the picture of calm” the administration wants to project. (watch Joe Biden’s swine flu comments on “Today”)

If Biden “sent you into a panic,” you’re not alone, said Chris Rovzar in New York. It sent his staff into a panic, too. “They rushed out a statement ‘clarifying’ his remarks,” insisting that Biden meant people should “avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico”—where the outbreak has hit hardest—and stay out of confined public spaces if they’re sick. “That's sound, reasonable advice,” but it’s not what Biden said.

Twisting Biden’s words into “something more sensible” is never easy, said Jennifer Rubin in Commentary. But it’s impossible to fix this “mega-gaffe,” which will cost far more than the $300,000 in lost travel and business disruptions caused by the scary Air Force One New York fly-over. Let’s hope President Obama sends Biden away on the funeral circuit before he does more damage.

Actually, the advice makes perfect sense to me. If you want to increase your risk of catching that pork flu or any other airborne disease by an order of magnitude ... fly or use any mass transit travel system or pack yourself into any tightly enclosed environment with a bunch of strangers. Sure it will cost the travel industry $$$ but do you really think the travel industry has your health interest at heart? Having said that, I would not panic just yet ... you will have plenty of time and reason to panic later this fall after the virus has had a chance to mutate and come back with a vengeance while rendering any vaccine they come up with over the summer useless.