I got flu!

GO FLU!

Statistically even 100,000 would not concern me, per nation...

This so called tip of the iceberg is more like the tip of an ice cube.

Yes it is new, yes it is unique, yes we should prepare an AV kit for it, but no we should not lose sleep, worry, panic at every cough.

In fact all evidence points at it being weaker in general than the common flu for symptoms. Additionally the number of fatalities in Mexico were found to be accidentally over exaggerated, leading to a face hiding correction by the Mexican Government.

This is an over-hyped flu issue. Typically our AV efforts guess at the 8-10 strains (or so, if not precisely correct) which will affect certain regions, and to flush those regions with AV's appropriate for those strains. This process is by no means perfect, and sometimes one of the strains zerg rushes and has to be stomped out the next year.

32,000 unreported cases. sounds about right. the symptoms are so general that most people would just right it off as just another flu. It means that the scary number of recorded deaths is not so bad. 45 out of 32,000 is miniscule

Well, Canada alone sees over 4K deaths a year to the normal "seasonal" flu. The US has even more. This is nothing to worry about. Well, unless you're already sick and on the verge of death. In that case the normal flu would kill you anyways.

a normal flu can mutate as well. Thats why its that hard to have a vaccine for life. You cannot keep on stopping these things. One time it will just have to its dirty work no matter what you do.

> Acolyte wrote:

> /All/ viruses and bacterium mutate. This is why we require new vaccines every so often when new strains of these viral agents are found.

*cough* chicken pox *cough*

Acolyte keep your hocus pocus witchcraft

If the patient sinks in water, they've got the zombie flu!

this swine flu is no more dangerous than normal flu. ^.^

> Acolyte wrote:

> @Zarf

Your body is somewhat of a sophisticated chemistry lab in and of itself. Your immune system is capable of immediately recognizing infection and creates antibodies in response to the microscopic threats. That's why it's only /unlikely/ to become infected twice, but the notion that it can never occur twice in the same person is an outright myth. It's possible for your immunity to weaken or wear off with time, exposing you to a slight recurrence should you become exposed again.

The concept of vaccination is to give your immune system a head start in producing the right antibodies, hopefully before you have been exposed, if you ever become exposed at all.

IF your immune system weakens, chicken pox can come back.  However... as for "wearing off," I'm calling BS.  Chicken pox isn't like smallpox in that it doesn't exist anymore: The disease is still in existence among the population.  Therefore, your body is reintroduced to chicken pox constantly, which allows it to renew that fight against the disease.

It's simple: There's two different types of viruses: Mutating viruses (i.e., influenza), and non-mutating viruses (chicken pox, smallpox).  If smallpox were a mutating virus, it could never have been eradicated in the '60's, because the disease would change year after year, just like influenza does, making old antibiotics useless.

And aside from that... I can agree with everything you said, and it doesn't answer the underlying question which I was challenging you on: That not all diseases mutate.  All you've said is that vaccines wear off... which is completely different from the virus mutating (the former means that your body forgot how to produce the particular antibody, whereas the latter means the disease changed to where the antibody is no longer applicable).

But then the nanotechnology built to produce our needed goods would self-replicate out of control, turning the planet into copies of itself.

Lets just set a few things straight for people who skipped high school:
a virus is not a "living" thing. It can use living cells for "reproduction".
antibiotics don't work on viruses. It can only work to prevent the weakened body from having other unwanted bacteria.

> Little Paul wrote:

> "If smallpox were a mutating virus, it could never have been eradicated in the '60's, because the disease would change year after year, just like influenza does, making old antibiotics useless."
1.) antibiotics don't work on a virus.
2.) A large if not the biggest part of viruses are mutations who came from animal viruses.

1: That was a miswording.  I meant "vaccines," not "antibiotics."
2: Not contesting that.