So this is the hot new panic in the world. For some reason people in North America with access to decent hospitals and medication will freak out and think they’re going to die. Stuff like this just makes me laugh. Will people get sick? Yes, quite a few and it will probably be bad. Are thousands of people going to die in fully modernized countries? Probably not without some other contributing factors. Like any other disease the most at risk are going to be children, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised.
The patients I work with have to worry about swine flu. Those of you out there in tumblr land probably do not have anything to worry about but getting a nasty ass flu. At least most of you don’t work in hospital where it will hit hard if it does become a complete pandemic.
Remember Bird Flu and SARS? Yea, those are still around, the public just stopped caring. So enjoy the media circus until the next armageddon disease comes over the horizon. Let’s just hope the next one isn’t something more like Ebola or Marburg virus.
The original H1N1 influenza strain killed between 20 and 200 million people. This, more than SARS, should worry people. That being said, if you are worried about it, you are a pussy.