Swine Flu - anyone else not worried?

Just musing, so wanted to put this out there

Should we be more worried in that, even if this is a "mild" strain of flu, it is still flu, and if it does go pandemic come autumn/winter this year, although we might not see the mass deaths which we have seen in past pandemics, it may further cripple an economy trying to battle through a reccesion?

I was only 4/5 when we had a big flu outbreak in the UK in the late 80s, but I think my school was closed down, so if there is that on a wider scale, I can see many people not being at work and a lot of businesses sturggling more??

The threat to business worries me a hell of a lot more than getting swine flu does. The thought of people not going out/only going out when necessary <shudder>

L
xx

I'm not sure if I should be worried or not. The daughter of one of my directors has been sent home from school as a pupil has been diagnosed with Swine Flu. The school is closed this week. He's in the office today.

I think I'd probably describe myself as not unduly worried. Even in a full blown pandemic, it's unlikely anyone I love will die. On the other hand, there probably will be a pandemic sooner or later in which lots of people will die, and when it happens it will be terrible. I suppose from a personal pov I see it as being a bit like the risk of being hit by a car or something- I'm mindful of it as a risk and will do what's sensible to minimise that risk but I won't lose any sleep over it.

On the other hand, I think there's a big difference between not being personally worried and not understanding why precautions and national planning are necessary. I've heard quite a few people describe what's being done as nonsense, pointless, a waste of time- simply because we're not all dying in the street yet and we didn't all die of bird flu and SARS. It seems a fairly stupid stance.

Ditto here! If I wasn't the only woman in the office I'd think we worked at the same place.

I'm not worried TBH. I've got as much chance of catching it in the street as I have anywhere else. I suppose I am being slightly more careful than normal. I always wash my hands after being outdoors anyway, but now I also carry a small bottle of alcohol gel and use that on my hands after I use a tissue, or travel on the tube etc. That's also as a courtesy to others though. I still think we've more chance of dying while crossing the road, or eating an undercooked steak etc.

Edited to add - oh the child whose been sent home from school is in our office too.

I'm not really worried and I catch everything that's going! I do live with uber geek though so we are pretty well set up for a "disaster" of any sort so this always keeps me calm. I know that if worst came to the worst and we couldn't leave the house for months we'd be fine. H finds it all rather exciting, he's dying to put the emergency box to use ?

The child is in your office? I'd be really worried about that.

It's not the child with Swine Flu, just one of the pupils from the school. She's not got any symptoms and has had Tamiflu.

Must admit I raised an eyebrow, but ultimately I doubt there's much risk.

I think it's happened fairly regularly in the past and that's not going to stop because that's what viruses do - they mutate specifically so they can get round the immune system.

Advances in healthcare should help but a lot of the world doesn't have decent healthcare. Where there is good healthcare, it's not really set up for 20% of the population getting ill at once. Also, some of the deaths from flu are things that we can't necessarily treat - such as where the immune system goes into overdrive.

So it won't necessarily happen, but it still might, and all the planning and action over the last couple of weeks has been to make sure risks are minimised where possible.

I know a lot of commentators are saying it's a fuss about nothing but we don't know what would have happened had Tamiflu/isolation procedures not been in place - and we still aren't far enough through this to say it is definitely a mild, contained virus.

So I'm not worried now, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't/isn't a risk.

I'm not worried, but I don't think thats in the slightest bit unusual, I don't know anyone else who is either. if I get it, I get it.

With respect, for every hypocondraic hysterical red top reader <generalisation> who has called the helpline at the first sign of a sniffle there will be plenty of hitcher types <generalisation> who ignore signs because they don't want to appear one of the hysterical masses. Since thats how it spread, its not always the best way to be.

I'm not worried at the moment - it seems mild and well contained. In fact I'd rather get it NOW, given that many commentators believe it will mutate for autumn. The last 2 winters I've been bed bound for 2 weeks from early autumn and left with chronic chest infections until March due to complications arising through pretty innocuous winter bugs and asthma. I don't really wnat it to be worse this winter.