Twitterpated

[vovat]

• 07:19 Didn't we already have a swine flu scare in the seventies? Do these trends just come and go, sort of like game shows? #
• 18:47 @samuraifrog Maybe they're only covering it to make a fake-out headline. "Kim Kardashian dies...her hair!" #
• 18:48 @eehouls Yes, and I for one never pretended otherwise. #
• 20:03 A mystery mentor for Rat Pack Week? Is it Sinatra's ghost? #
• 20:11 I can't stop sneezing. I hate this. #
• 20:34 So, just what IS a funny valentine? #

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Comments

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

What is with all the Rat Pack and pseudo-modern-Rat Pack specials lately?

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Swine flu comes by every once in awhile, and it's impossible to say how bad it will get until it's too late. There was an outbreak in the 70's that faded away, but there was also that swine flu pandemic in 1918 that killed at least 40-100 million people. There were smaller outbreaks in, I believe, the late 50's and the late 60's. What has experts concerned this time around is that the flu is killing young adults in Mexico, the people who should be strongest against it -- just like the 1918 outbreak did.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Am I right in remembering they called the 1918 flu the Spanish flu?

That's the one that killed Egon Schiele, etc. It did seem to get to the healthy young population (I believe it started out in a military setting).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

At least we haven't had the Spanish Swine Flu yet! That's the REALLY bad kind!

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Or the Spanish Fly Flu?! That actually sounds exciting!!!!!!!!!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Sounds sexy!

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

and alliterative!!!!!!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

That's right, they did -- and it started at the end of World War I, which means it hit a world that in many ways had been badly weakened. About 550,000 people were killed in the United States alone, and estimates in the rest of the world are up to or over 100 million.

Some experts are starting to breath a bit easier right now, but others point out that the Spanish flu started with a mild outbreak in the spring, then died down -- and then all hell broke loose in the fall. The good news is that there are ways to prepare and defend now that they didn't have back then. Anyway, there's no point in panicking just yet -- we just have to be careful and stay alert. This may end up being no worse than any other flu.