I've been washing my hands a lot more. Other than that I haven't changed my behavior.

I plan on stocking up on extra water and canned foods, however. I'm super paranoid and convinced I'll see a complete breakdown in society during my lifetime, even if it's just for a few weeks. An epidemic of some killer flu would be the impetus for such an event. So it's not necessarily a reaction to this specific event as an overall sense of impending doom.

The WHO seems to suggest that we're on the brink of a pandemic. I wonder if this is true or they're just following a severe case of PYA?

Here in Vancouver we've had 3 reported cases. I believe that all 3 people are staying home in self-monitored isolation. So how serious could their situations be?

I distinctly remember the SARS scare a few years ago. The media hype today appears very reminiscent of that.

Nothing different at all except avoiding alleged news reporting of the "event". Everything is hyperreactionary anymore so I'm just proceeding with life without going all panic berzerk like some.

Like SARS, Bird Flu and now Flying Pig Disease, it's going to be something that has to grab headlines then quietly die off so the talking heads can move on to the next fictitious catastrophe.

I agree with CJ's "hyperreactionary" assessment. My behavior hasn't changed at all.

Washing my hands/using Purell as usual (lots). Will stay home if I feel sick instead of pushing through a shift at work. I'm a nurse and you'd think that the latter would be a given but the reality is it's not always acceptable...

This is an excellent way to distract everyone from the economic goings-on. Hey kids look at the pretty rattle!

I've been sneezing more. But I think that has to do with the fact that the trees have been spewing forth pollen, and not the media spewing stupidity. I am allergic to both however.

Contagious diseases are like a fire, or garden pests. They're innocuous when they're small or there's only a few cases. But once it's past a certain point, it gets harder to contain and - as with some of the great urban fires of past centuries - then everyone wishes like hell that they'd kept those buckets by the front door like they were supposed to.

I read up on the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 and it was scary. Almost as virulent as the black plague, although not quite as contagious, it could kill a healthy person in under a day. It just ate up the lungs, partly from the patient's own immune system. I think the mucus was also very thick and viscous and could not be coughed up. If that didn't kill the person, the secondary infections and bacterial pneumonia would. Some places it seemed to have killed 1-2 percent of the local population, but there were parts where whole towns were wiped out. According to Wiki, anyways. And it spread everywhere around the globe.

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like if 1 out of every 100 people that I see from day to day were to die from this. My apartment building, public transport, post office, grocery store, my office job, my friends, my family, my classes, my gym... one out of every hundred familiar faces would be gone.

This flu has some of the same effects, namely, inflammation of the lungs due to aggressive immune response. Now we can better treat the secondary infections, but it could still suck.

I just got over a really bad cold/sinus infection which laid me out for 2 and a half weeks with gallon after gallon of snot. Having to struggle for every breath made me appreciate the luxury of a clean airway.

I'm washing my hands for the full 30 seconds, using a paper towel for the handle on the way out of the bathroom... not much else, though. I won't be flying commercial any time soon, but I didn't have plans to, either. We typically don't go to large public gatherings, either. I'm not going out much right now anyway, because I'm pregnant and all I want to do (once I'm done throwing up) is sleep.

I am still probably going to pick up some Lysol for the office (I have plenty at home), and I made sure we're stocked up on good hand soap.

I'm washing my hands more frequently and using hand sanitizer. This has the potential to be a really big thing, especially in countries with substandard health care, but I'm not ready to graduate to medical-grade masks yet.

I'm also having a ridiculously hard time keeping my editing relevant at work, because things keep changing so fast, but that's my own thing.

>>I'm not going out much right now anyway, because I'm pregnant and all I want to do (once I'm done throwing up) is sleep.

I hope warm congrats are okay, ahw?

As to the Big Story, later today (on a plane) I might only open my mouth for food!

I'm like Gretchen. Have advised my offspring to have a week's supply of water and comfort foods that can be eaten straight from the can with a spoon. I've been waiting for the collapse of civilization for decades!

But I haven't actually *done* anything yet.

I'm steering into the curve, I think this is all panicky bullshit. I haven't washed my hands since I showered this morning. Now I am licking my mouse and keyboard. I just sneezed without covering my mouth.

Of course this is a land grant university that focuses on agriculture, and the word on the street here is that this is panicky bullshit. The only article in the school newspaper today about this crap is an AP article that discusses 'not calling it swine flu' to help save the pigs. At TAMU we are all about saving livestock. So we can eat them.

Now I think I'll run over to the student center, violate social distance rules, and eat lunch without washing my hands.

Flu or no, if it's only a few flights, I take the stairs, not the elinfectorator. I KNOW where all of those fingers pressing the buttons have been. It's like being forced to pick someone else's nose, for chrissake!

JayR, I wish I could take the stairs. The elevator is rigged so that we are forced to take it down. The fire alarms will go off we try to use the stairs. We're also ordered into the elevator lobby in case of fire alarm -- the lobby that's completely cut off from the rest of the office, and the stairs. The lobby where the elevators are shut down when the alarms go off. Somebody decided that cramming 150 people into a tiny death trap was a good idea.

The common sense, we lack it.

Nope, not doing anything differently here, and we've got a supposed case here in town, some teenager who went to the walk-in clinic with flu-like symptoms. But we wash our hands all the time anyway. Yesterday Daughter #1 and her friend made strawberry-rhubarb pie (yes, with homemade crust), and man, it turned out great!

I work in risk management and took a class on Pandemics a while back (2005) and I work with catastrophic pandemic loss policies. Pandemics aren’t a matter of IF they are a matter of when. There is just no telling. This could very well be a false alarm. But we also know, historically, that the first wave generally isn’t the killer on these; its the second - and who knows if this is the first wave or second in Mexico. Or maybe if some of the flu vaccines (more readily available in the US) is doing something to mitigate the symptoms here. But strains do change and infections get worse. That’s nothing new.

Most important thing is to be prepared and not to panic. Being in the Bay Area, I have an Earthquake kit that I have just beefed up a bit. Canned foods, staples and plenty of water. It just can't hurt. If you are relying on the government for assistance in a crisis, you minus well be pissing in the wind...(Katrina).

Things I am doing:

-Hand Sanitizer (purse, home and office)
-Frequent washing of hands
-I have a job that fortunately, if needed I can work from home...and I will do so if my building is deemed a threat. (my back up plan IF it gets serious)
-No public transportation (BART is disgusting any way, and I am more than happy to avoid it regardless of the potential Flu Threat)
- I'm a gardener and fortunate to have a bit of land, so my veggie garden is already in - if I wasn’t able to make it to the store for a few weeks, I'd be fine (but this is my hobby – if you don’t like gardening-don’t bother). This can also be accomplished with vitamin supps – canned food without roughage and fiber has unpleasant side effects.
- Tamiflu is a prescription only med hospitals give you for reduction of flu symptoms. There are several herbal alternatives to this, Elderberry Extract, Vitamin D, and Boiron makes a great product called Oscillococcinum. Also, research has shown that Traditional Herbal Chinese Medicine has a supplement called Da Hui Xiang. (Tamiflu is made with Chinese star anise (illicium verum or Da Hui Xiang, not to be confused with Japanese star anise or Mang Cao which is toxic) which is the basic component for shikimic acid - something which has been effective in fighting SARS and other flu viruses.) I have two of these on stock. It doesnt cure the Flu, but symptom reduction helps to keep hydrated and keep your body from getting weeker.
- I've doubled my vitamin doses (especially Vitamin D &C).

That’s it. No panicking, just be prepared.

Boiron makes a great product called Oscillococcinum.

Sorry, this will not rid you of anything but your money.

Yes, Jody, and thank you. It's planned and everything, no health issues right now, low risk, etc...

I'm lucky in that I don't have to take an elevator; my office is on the ground floor. I don't take public transportation. (We Texans generally like having our own vehicles.) Our firm lobbies the state legislator, so if this actually hits Austin, the leg is likely to shut down, and everyone involved in it will just stay home.

Sterling, are you an AGGIE? (Insert joke here...)

That's interesting, about the herbs, Feebie. I'll have to write those down.

I just got back from Target... they're out of hand sanitizer and face masks, but have Lysol. (I was there to pick up a perscription, and was chatting with the pharmacist about any strange requests they've gotten.)

A "googol" is the math name for that number 100...000 with a hundred zeroes. I never thought I would see a practical use for it. That number D400 is 1 followed by 400 zeroes. Amazing.

The fraction "1 part in a googol" is unimaginably smaller than the fraction "one googol in a D400".

I recommend the "Aristotle Cure". Take a deep breath. You are very likely to have breathed in a few oxygen molecules that Aristotle once breathed. Or, if you like, take the "Einstein Cure". You get the picture. In either case, you are getting more target molecules than you can expect from drinking a glass of occillococcinum.

Swine flu? What's that? I have not changed a single routine in my life to take into account this latest scare disease. Here's why.

Trying to avoid the media even more than I previously have.

Well, that's a bummer. Good to know.

I've heard a few people who said that it worked for them (and i use a few of their Other products e.g eye drops and allergy line -that I am happy with).

Maybe placebo effect?

I R an Aggie, and in my old age work for them.

Aggie and Tsip in the bathroom. Tsip finishes and washes his hands. Aggie finishes and walks out. Tsip stops him and says 'my mom taught me to wash my hands after using the bathroom'. Aggie looks at him and says 'my mom taught me not to pee on my hands'.

If Austin shuts down, thus goes College Station. I guess we are kind of close to Mexico, and they are already at full panic in San Antonio. But with air traffic as it is today, proximity to the source of the disease is relative. The Ag folks here are saying it's no big deal. Famous last words? We'll see.

How insensitive of you Amy.

We are now calling it the H1N1 flu per the federal government.

The pork industry doesn't like people calling it the "swine flu." Maybe it hurts the pigs feelings. Double entendre intended.

Feebie, your body generates Vitamin D when sunlight hits your skin, and Vitamin C is water soluble, you could increase your intake of it 10,000 times over and it would have no effect.

Vitaimin D is fat souluble and oddly enough the symptom of a Vitamin D overdose is flu like symptoms

God I love the irony

You know I just thought of something totally off topic, I wonder how many people who have been labled lactose intolerant might simply be reacting to the additional Vitamin D that seems to be added to all dairy products these days

HA! My uncle and grandfather are Aggies, and the Uncle is an engineer in College Station... and is running for the school board. The fam's from Caldwell/Snook. (I went to the school formerly known as SWT, and thus am not a "TSip".)

Yep, full panic in SA, and New Braunfels, and Guadalupe county... schools are shutting down through the 11th. My Grandmother (in NB) keeps sending out the "Don't go outside 'cause YOU GONNA DIE!!!" emails.

I'm eating more bacon than ever to increase my immunity!

*snark*

No but for real about eating more bacon. It's good.

I'm not worried much and not doing anything differently. I tend to like the advice put out by Dr. Mercola and his advice is, Take care of your body so you don't get sick.

On the flip side, I have totally been craving sausage and bacon. Lots of it. It tastes good. (But the hog conditions in La Gloria not so good.)

Nothing much. We rarely do crowds anyway. Little more handwashing. Might pull the kids from the last 3 weeks of PreK, but given that we moved into a new house 3 days ago and I am due to birth any day, and it's a 20 mile drive to their school, that's as much laziness as anything else.

DH is a healthcare worker, and says they have a few cases here in the hospital( Austin/RR), but tamiflu isn't that scarce. I'm not worried. I would have happily walked through a whole feild of anthrax, then taken cipro. I feel about the same with this panic du jour.

Doesn't regular flu kill 36,ooo or so a year? We've had one death from this kind so far, right?

Mmm, just had some bacon at lunch today.

It's pretty remarkable how fast the virus has spread to other countries. I'm in Germany right now, where there have been only a handful of cases, and am about to travel by train to Paris which has just one possible case... so I hardly feel at risk of getting it. Still I'll be more motivated than usual to wash my hands frequently and keep them away from my mouth, which I try to do anyway.

I am a bit of a worrywart, and read a lot of science fiction, so I am concerned about the real possibility of the virus mutating into a much deadlier form and spreading like crazy. But, there's nothing to worry about right now. Authorities seem to be handling the situation well. The media went hog-wild of course, it's a bit disgusting how they deliberately whip up a panic, but I do appreciate the constant information.

A couple local kids have it, so my son's day care is closed, along with all the other day cares, schools, and public parks in the area. So, I'll be using some extra vacation time taking care of him.

a little birdy told me that some companies are going to require that you get buyoff from a health provider that you are OK before going back to work, if you return from vacation in Mexico. That in addition to the plea to "wash your damn hands" might help a bit...

An interesting article about Vitamin D. It may answer the question why colds and flu are mostly winter diseases.

09/15/06 - Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D

Excerpt:

Four years ago, I became convinced that vitamin D was unique in the vitamin world by virtue of three facts. First, it's the only known precursor of a potent steroid hormone, calcitriol, or activated vitamin D. Most other vitamins are antioxidants or co-factors in enzyme reactions. Activated vitamin D - like all steroid hormones - damasks the genome, turning protein production on and off, as your body requires. That is, vitamin D regulates genetic expression in hundreds of tissues throughout your body. This means it has as many potential mechanisms of action as genes it damasks.

The third way vitamin D is different from other vitamins is the dramatic difference between natural vitamin D nutrition and the modern one. Today, most humans only make about a thousand units of vitamin D a day from sun exposure; many people, such as the elderly or African Americans, make much less than that. How much did humans normally make? A single, twenty-minute, full body exposure to summer sun will trigger the delivery of 20,000 units of vitamin D into the circulation of most people within 48 hours. Twenty thousand units, that's the single most important fact about vitamin D. Compare that to the 100 units you get from a glass of milk, or the several hundred daily units the U.S. government recommend as "Adequate Intake." It's what we call an "order of magnitude" difference.

For some interesting pandemic reading, try John Barry's The Great Influenza.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Influenza-deadliest-pandemic-history/dp/0143036491/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241129418&sr=8-1

Andrew - Thank you so much for posting.

Because I live like a bat, and wear the best sunblock out there when I do go outside, I take 1,000 IU of vitamin D (cholicalciferol) daily. It aids in calcium absorption, too.

I take this in addition to foods I eat, but I'm interested in getting tested to see how much vitamin D is adequate (how many IU I can/should take vis a vis my lack of sun exposure), and how much is too much. There are labs that do this sort of thing - it's on my "do it before way too long list."

I'm going about my life while the various Chicken Little media outlets tell us the sky is falling. Now I'm gonna go look for something shiny to play with on the 'net.

All this incessant chattering about bacon has led me to fry up a whole pound of bacon, cook eggs sunny side up in the grease, and eat it all by myself.

Damn you. Damn you all. Sigh.

Eating dead cow with cheese on it at the moment, but you make me wish I'd thought to throw a slice of bacon on top.

Attention, California-dwelling, meat-chomping frugalists:

Ralph's lower-salt/non-sugar cured bacon is on sale, two for $6, with the dumbass club card. (I bought eight, saved $17, and they freeze well). Of course, mine dumbass club card is in the name Mrs. Klaus, Elf's Ass Lane, North Pole, although I typically can't find it when I'm at the supermarket and have to fill out some other bogus name and address to reapply. What's my phone number, you ask? Why, 310-555-1212. If you have any questions, just call and ask for information.

No, in case you're wondering, I am not in the habit of "joining" my supermarket. It is not the Riviera Country Club (not that I'd want to be a member there, either); It's a big old data suck and I'm decidely not into that sort of spillage.

Nothing. If I get it, I get it. Doesn't seem probable.

I'm not sure exactly why I am supposed to be afraid. There was a great article about the panic on gawker, which of course I cannot find now, that said something like "With the swine flu pandemic upon us, is the zombie war far behind?" It pretty much summed up my feelings on the whole situation.

Swine flu is a big deal because there's no vaccine. Meanwhile, "ordinary" flu killed nearly a hundred Americans a day last year.

-----

"Ralph's lower-salt/non-sugar cured bacon is on sale, two for $6, with the dumbass club card."

Out here in the sticks, you might find Grits and Groceries. Portions look small, but are so wonderful you'll marvel that someone could cook like that. It's no pack-your-guts buffet. Every dish is a prize.

One of their most popular dishes is a praline bacon plate: the bacon is cooked in cane and brown sugar, I think. Oh, boy...

They "get it". And they have a devoted following to prove it.

Hysteria. Why so many dead? Because people who were only mildly sick didn't bother going to the doctor - so those cases didn't get counted. Really - how many people run for medical assistance every time they get the sniffles? Sure, it may be a nasty flu virus, but it is only a flu virus.

Then we get the comparisons to the Spanish flu. However, as someone pointed out in an earlier post, many of the Spanish flu deaths were due to subsequent bacterial pneumonia. Guess what: we have antibiotics today, not sulfa drugs.

Hysteria. Because the media (and WHO and politicians) needs something to blow out of all proportion so that they continue to seem relevant.

> media (and WHO and politicians) needs
> something to blow out of all proportion

That's true... But it's getting ever more difficult to blame "media" nowadays.

First of all, they're dropping like flies.

Secondly, the people who are replacing them in our attention (including bloggers like Amy) are giving an incredibly open-minded review of the information that's available. Consider Amy's post; two questions about what *we've* heard. It's OK to blame a lot of trends in public obsession to older TV viewers, the Matlock crowd. But Cronkite's been off the air for thirty years or something. This isn't all top-down information control anymore.

Two forces which may (may) be at work—

First, it may be part of our nature to be spooked by cooties... Even if we didn't know they actually existed until a couple hunnerd years ago, it's reasonable to assume that we've got some brain wires devoted to concern about infectious disease.

Secondly, the fact that a generation or two has come and gone without seeing a gruesome pandemic doesn't mean much. I remember the feeling of deflation in my heart at 6:18am on 9/11 at age 42, when it became apparent that my generation wasn't going to slip through history without seeing some profoundly destructive shit going down. It wasn't only sadness, it was also like the end of a snooze period of an alarm clock, when you realize it's time to get up and get to work. Ah well, we knew it was coming....

There are probably a lot of people like that in America today. It's not that they're eager to panic, but they know they're not immune to animal tragedy.

The regular flu killes 36,000 Americans last year. Traffic fatalities were down, but used to run 50,000 deaths a year.

Google death rates for heart disease and cancer.

I'll continue to wash my hands and live my life.

The problem is that media is a for profit organization anymore and they only maximize those dollars by creating stories about panic, death and famine or whatever is the crisis de jour in order to get viewers and paid advertising. This, like SARS, and bird flu will pass and be forgotten and the media will shift the focus back to cloning sheep or the middle east or teachers of the year bringing xanax to school.

This isn't 1918, pandemics, while slightly possible are not probable. We live in advanced societies with advanced medical treatments and unless you are struggling with your health to some degree this will not be an issue for healthy people.

Now, I'm off to have some of Grandpa's cough syrup just in case I'm wrong. A Scottish blend will suit me just fine. Is it 5 yet?

I've always been militant with the hand washing and sanitizer, so I'm not doing anything new or different. I always avoid sick people, this is just another good reason to do so. I don't think I would die, I just don't like to be sick. I live in Houston, and work in the medical center. This is an all out freak fest down here. We have thousands of kids out of school, and the local health department is advising all schools/businesses to close their doors for a week if anyone turns up sick. I think that it is a bit excessive, and am planning to go to a concert on Saturday.

I've stopped being a cannibal.

We have a string of holidays in May in Japan called 'Golden Week' because it's a chance for a long vacation....the workaholic Japanese (DH included) don't use their company vacation time and take vacations at any other time than official holidays (New Year's, Obon-feast for the dead in August-and Golden Week)so it's a big chance to get away. We booked and paid for tickets to the US a couple of months ago,we planned it,and I was shocked when the whole flu issue came up. We were looking SO forward to it,we really needed the break, and were getting more excited every week and were counting down the days to blastoff :-)

We watched the news and kept track of it, weighed the risks, packed masks, Tamuflu and Relenza and here we are. It's hard to see beyond the hype and panic reactions in the media and make a decision.

Does "here we are" mean you're in the United States or in Japan?

I think this thing's a fizzle. If you're in good health, with clean habits and access to fresh food, clean water to wash with and a warm place to sleep, you're gonna be fine whether you get the flu or not.

If you're in the United States, enjoy your visit in any case.

(Does any know whether this thing has made a statistically detectable blip in human mortality yet?)

In the US...we decided not to be influenced by the hype. So far, so good. It's on TV in Japan, every channel, from early morning onward, it really gave us pause for a couple of days. To watch JTV, you'd think we were all under siege by some undefeatable super bug.

I think it's going to turn out to be a fizzle as well. The numbers aren't matching the frantic predictions made early on. Officials erring on the side of caution isn't a bad thing, but the media took it several steps further.