'Walking well' flood hospitals over swine hysteria

After a week of headlines about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, many emergency rooms and hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don't need to be there. "We are spending significant time in the emergency department, calming people down. Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they're going to die. That's a scary, frightening place to be in. I wish that this hysteria had not occurred and that we had tempered a little bit of our opinions and thoughts and fears in the media. It just went haywire."

CNN

I think this sums up the frustration I'm feeling over all of this. I work at a travel agency and we are SLAMMED because everyone thinks they're one step away from catching this killer flu. Little do they know they have a better chance of getting struck by lightning then getting this strain of flu...which happens to still just be the flu.

And now, we have crazy Tom and Jane flooding the ER because its allergy season and they left the window open last night and have a stuffy nose - naturally it must be the killer swine trying to infect them as they sleep...or maybe it was that Mexican that looked at me funny when I pulled out of McDonalds...or freaking Dorthy two cubicles away...she just came back from Costa Rica.

Whats the latest count of deaths again? 13? 40? 1000? Out of a few few hundred million people between Mexico and the US... It's pure insanity.

If this is all it takes to get people flipping out no wonnder the world the way it is. What happens when something really scary happens?

God save us.

[edit on 2-5-2009 by xEphon]

Regular flu has killed thousands since January

(CNN) -- There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. (*edit to add - that number is now ONE*) But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year.

That one? The regular flu.

Experts are nervous that, as a new strain, the swine flu will be harder to stop because there aren't any vaccines to fight it.

But even if there are swine-flu deaths outside Mexico -- and medical experts say there very well may be -- the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.

CNN

I knew this was going to happen. Damn media and their over hyping.

Honestly, it would be actual news if say 30-40% of the people ACTUALLY infected with it died.

Darn Sheeple.

reply to post by Tentickles


No kidding.

The media is just fine and well reporting the number of infected (doesn't that sound scary! Infected .

If all they had to do was report on the number of deaths...well...there wouldn't be much to report on. I'm sure they still have their fingers crossed on that front.

[edit on 2-5-2009 by xEphon]

reply to post by xEphon there are so many different sites and news on this flu that people don't know what to believe. being that our president is doing fine leads me to think this has something to to with the government and possibly the economy, but what? why didn't obama get sick?

Actually I take a different view on this.

The media which has hyped the issue has foced changes in people behavior. Those changes, staying at home, covering up when sneezing etc (Or shaming those that dont) have worked to our advantage in limiting this disease.

reply to post by FredT that's all well and fine but shouldn't we be doing this anyway? all we can really do is take these precautions and wait

After a week of headlines about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, many emergency rooms and hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don't need to be there. "We are spending significant time in the emergency department, calming people down. Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they're going to die.

That is because people are basically STUPID!!! Damn the masses get on my nerves - more & more each day!!

I am still not convinced this is all over....as some seem to totally believe. But it has been a good indication of how things will go with the public when TS does HTF!

Unfortunately, even some at ATS will still be saying it ain't so when it really does HTF......I think we may all be totally f***ed!!

reply to post by xEphon


You are absolutely right xEphon. I worked the ER here just last night, and we had to swim through hypochondriacs to get to the people who really needed us. The over reaction to the swine flu IS currently, I.E. right now, endangering more people than the stupid flu is. To non-medical readers: If you go to an ER, and the first words out of your mouth to the triage nurse is, "I read on the internet that...", GO THE HELL HOME!!!! quit wasting resources, and taking time away from people in your community that really need medical attention. An ER is for emergencies, not to get randomly screened for a virus you 99.9999% do not have, at 4am because you were up too late reading fear mongers on the internet. If you clog an ER with stupidity YOU are more dangerous than the swine flu. IMHO the WHO needs to put a level 6 alert out on morons clogging ERs with frivolous cases.

By the way do you know how many confirmed cases of H1N1 we had between all 3 hospitals all night long? ZERO! but we spent all night testing hundreds, and hundreds of people, at a cost of thousands of dollars. Only 2 people out of that whole mob even had influenza "A", and that's counting all 3 hospitals. Seriously, the biggest thing you can do to help your community is chill way out.

OK, rant over. This just really hits home for me because I just had to put up with it for 16 freaking hours.

reply to post by Binder



16 hours ? you poor thing.

It's astounding the hysteria that is being whipped up over this. It's a flu. Humans have had flu before. Humans will have flu again. New strains come about all the time. This MAY turn into something bigger . It may not as well.

In the meantime , we should be being cautious and not doing a chicken little .
The sky isn't falling just yet.

I feel for you. Hopefully things will start dying down

NYT: Outbreak in Mexico May Be Smaller Than Feared

Forbes: Mexico sees flu stabilizing

People in society today have been so conditioned to think everything must be perfect, they do not understand the things humans went through in the past.

Human beings all over this world go through hell all there lifes in soe countries, and they get through it, while some americans get a cough and think they are going to die. I wonder what people starving to death in some poor country would think of americans if they knew what was happening now.

You guys are so preconditioned to medicine and doctors, you should ask your grand parents how they survived with hardly going to the doctor, years ago.

reply to post by Binder


I thought working in the pharmacy and having to restock the ER Pyxis with various crap every half hour for 10 hours was awful. I feel so sorry for you. But it's the same story with our hospitals. Unless of course you work in one of mine. Ahhh... The wonder of the intrarwebz. Anyway, I posted my bitching here. Pretty much the same thing with less hours and not wading through the mentally ill.

Originally posted by Tentickles
I knew this was going to happen. Damn media and their over hyping.

Honestly, it would be actual news if say 30-40% of the people ACTUALLY infected with it died.

Darn Sheeple.

Exactly! Isn't that frustrating? Those of us who are aware, or at least inquisitive and suspicious, are constantly faced with the very real disappointment of watching the dark lords' covert actions have a negative effect on society, right before our eyes. And there seems to be nothing we can do about it (in the immediate time frame). In the longer time frame, we are winning every day by awakening those who still believe the MSM is the only source for their news.

But seeing the public's reaction to this insane opera is like watching a little kid in the house next door playing with matches and gasoline. He's hearing impaired and you've lost your voice for the day. You know what's gonna happen but but you can't warn him in time. The little tyke just keeps playing with the matches and gasoline because Fox told him it was safe.

In all honesty, I find it so frustrating to see how many people truly are sheep. It just floors me how gullible people can be. I find it impossible to comprehend that some of them won't even consider the alternative... truth.

So do you know what I do when I get this frustrated? Every day I find a person I like, usually a complete stranger and I give them the greatest gift they'll probably ever get. I give them a copy of "The Obama Deception" and of "Terrorstorm". I give them a start... a start in independent thinking and enough self worth to begin to question what they are being fed every day. And in that way, they eventually walk through that door and become a whole lot more enlightened. That's my opinion of what the true illuminati are.

Most people who post on this site are the true illuminati. They're enlightened enough that they at least question it all. They'll argue with each other sometimes but at least they're thinking. No doubt there are even thousands and thousand of lurkers here who never do make a post, but they too are becoming part of the real illuminati just by being here, and reading, and questioning it all. That's why the internet must continue unabated... forever.

God damn it... sometimes life is great!

You guys are supposed to be bright. None of you even noticed the phrase "Walking Well" right in your face. Seriously people we can do better than this.

reply to post by Memysabu


Sorry but...what are you talking about?

Hysteria over swine flu is the real danger, some say

www.cnn.com...

(CNN) -- As the number of swine flu cases rises around the world, so is a gradual backlash -- with some saying the threat the virus poses is overblown.

By Sunday, 787 cases of the virus, known as influenza A (H1N1), had been confirmed in 17 countries, the World Health Organization said. The number of fatalities grew to 20.

"There is too much hysteria in the country and so far, there hasn't been that great a danger," said Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas. "It's overblown, grossly so."

Paul, who was a freshman senator during a swine flu outbreak in 1976, said Congress voted to inoculate the whole country at the time.

Twenty-five people died from the inoculation while one person was killed by the flu, Paul said, adding that he voted against inoculation.

If you haven't read it, you should.

The scare should be over, but the hysteria is now like a runaway train that can't be stopped. People are literally spreading false or fabricated reports, or just simply adding their own paranoia to the conversations all spreading fear and hysteria faster than the virus which by all expert accounts is a very minor flu when compared to others.

The only thing "different" about this flu is that it has taken some healthy adults.

Every year the average flu strains kill 36,000 but it is mostly the elderly (typically turns into pneumonia) or infants. If they tracked the yearly flu deaths they could cause panic every year (well for 2 or 3 years till it got old).

This ain't nothing like the Spanish Flu of 1915 which killed 20 to 40 million, and which appears to have infected just about every human living on the planet at that time. This is probably a backlash from the Bird Flu hysteria that never materialized.


[edit on 3-5-2009 by Sonya610]

reply to post by Walkswithfish


Good for Ron Paul.
There is a reason he wasn't elected President. Don't need people thinking clearly - that would be disasterous.

Maybe in some areas.. but when I went to the ER the other day it was me, the staff, and some kid with a broken bone. The question sheet was brand new though, included the questions "Have you traveled out of the country in the past X days" and "Do you feel safe at home".