A county health official said "the public should not panic" over the swine flu... he's right, the TV stations are doing the panicking for us. All the TV ditzies are running around in tight circles screaming "pandemic" "over a thousand dead in Mexico" "schools closed", and of course, much much video of people walking around with masks on. Oh what fun, a new story to milk to death.
And just what is with the masks? I wouldn't think that any mask that has a weave
tight enough to stop a
VIRUS, is going to let oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide freely flow through (given the limited surface area of a mask), in levels to support the continued respiration of a person. I thought an electron microscope was needed to view a virus, which is down in the 10's of nanometers. I think those masks would be like a bug flying through a tree, as far as a virus is concerned.
I saw people with NIOSH 95 masks on... good for breaking up concrete with, IIRC, a bit too loose for a virus...
And almost every mask-wearer I saw on TV was not wearing them correctly. Any mask with nose stays needs to have them formed to fit tightly to the sides of the nose and over the bridge of the nose. I saw almost all have an air space to each side of the nose... geeze, they even will have to instruct people how to wear a mask. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding this mask-thing. Maybe it's a fashion statement now. I'm really late on this fashion stuff.
I suspect that months from now, this all will be looked back upon, with the realization that the H1N1 "swine flu" had been in the US for months before now, that many have had it, and didn't know that it was anything other than the flu that was going around.
As to all the deaths in Mexico, well, many people die in Mexico every day. We don't know how big the population was/is that had that actual strain. The actual death
rate could be low. Every winter here in the US, some people die from the flu. Usually due to fluid buildup in the lungs.
Every year, over 30,000 Americans die in motor vehicle crashes. If we knew nothing about the population, miles driven/ridden per person per year, etc., the TV stations would be running around screaming not to get in cars or trucks, they're certain killers.
I'm such a skeptic, I know...