Now that the CDC has announced that swine flu isn't mega-deadly or as virulent as was once said, are people still going to be as paranoid?

I really haven’t seen anyone in my area going crazy over this; however, I know what you mean. It can go either way. People might calm down, or the ones that like conspiracies will crawl out of the woodwork and decide that this is a government cover-up.

I just want someone to deal with a nasty stomach bug going through my son’s school. ick!

@cak All the managers at my job today were called into an emergency meeting to discuss what to do in the event of a massive outbreak of swine flu. Our office had the regular flu something fierce last year and there was no action.

I saw a woman with a mask in the supermarket today. People are going to be as paranoid as they want to be.

HlNl will do until the next one comes up.

Where I work we can’t keep the alcohol hand sanitizer on the shelf-people are buying huge bottles of it at a crazy rate. I’ve also seen a lot of people with masks on. I also laughed because there was an older lady in front of me at the pharmacy today that was getting some Tamiflu filled. She seemed completely healthy-If she was picking it up for her husband or something I have no idea. I’m guessing she probably asked her doctor for it just in case. Which isn’t bad, I just thought it was cute!

While the parinoia is annoying one good thing which I hope does remain is the renewed interest in hand washing and sanitation.

I am always grossed out when a person leaves the bathroom stall and walks straight out the exit. Up until recently it seemed to be happening more often. Perhaps now it will be a rare sight again.

It seems to be spreading more and more in my city, so I’m sure the panic won’t die down here immediately

Paranoia and panic was never necessary. The virus seems to spread quite easily but it’s not very aggressive when people get infected. There’s still a small chance of mutations in the wrong direction. Most of the media coverage was really necessary. It has raised awareness. And our politicians can check whether all policies work in cases of emergencies.

Please don’t draw the conclusion this has been hype only. Pandemic influenza is very serious. Potentially far more serious than seasonal influenza. We have to be well prepared. We might be lucky this time. Tsunami warning systems are a good thing. And so are pandemic warning systems. Let’s apply critical thinking and draw the right conclusions.

People like to panic and be the first one to take “precautions” but when everyone else joins the game it is no longer cool so we stop and move to the next “emergency”. Keeps us energized.

As soon as something else “happens” I doubt we’ll hear so much about the swine flu. The news media focuses so much on one thing until you’re sick to death of hearing about it or scared to death.

Get this a friend of mine has just told me . ” I am going to stock up on food, tins and frozen so when it strikes harder i wont have to leave the house. That means i wont risk any chance of catching it . ” My response was ” you are an idiot but thanks to idiots like you , i will get cheaper pork and other foods .”
Oh did i forget he miss-read an article in a newspaper http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/1194148?UserKey= sorry i don’t know how to shrink the link. But he thought it says confirmed cases

personally, i’m not horribly paranoid about it, but i am really scared. people that don’t have health insurance do have reason to be neurotic, because if they do contract it and it does get bad, i doubt that the meds for it are very affordable. also, apparently a school near me had a case of it, and didn’t let anyone know until it came out, and then closed the school. so. i don’t know, people are going to be scared, and they have reason to be. i think learning about it lessens the fear a bit though.

No. Our store has been like a morgue this past week after a few months of resurgence and I believe it’s due to the hype on TV and online about the flu. Honestly, if it wasn’t my job to come in contact with hundreds of people each day, I wouldn’t go to that place just as I avoid going to shopping malls and grocery stores as much as I can. I have a compromised immune system so I’ve got a damned good reason to be afraid but not enough to stay home from work. This is troubling when normal healthy people are so afraid.

@knitfroggy – This depends on what happens to the virus. It’s very real and the media didn’t invent it. Some media embrace sensationalism though, which is wrong.

@tiffyandthewall – If the virus mutates and gets more aggressive everyone infected without health insurance will get Tamiflu for free to slow down the pandemic. Very likely it won’t come to that, but a small chance remains.

@mattbrowne I understand that the swine flu is real and dangerous. I just think that all the media coverage is crazy. It’s scaring people unnecessarily. There is no reason to have a breaking news story every time a new case is confirmed! And I don’t recall saying the news media invented it, btw, but I did say they are focusing on it and scaring people.

@knitfroggy The open and honest discussion of a potential disaster is what keeps it from occurring. If the media wasn’t on top of this thing, how would we know?

@YARNLADY If people want to listen to the news about the swine flu around the clock that’s their own business. I personally don’t. You seriously don’t think they’re overblowing it just a tad?

@YARNLADY Informing people about the flu probably did have an effect helping to keep it from spreading. But something that is cause for a small concern the media will blow hugely out of proportion. Swine flu was never was going to become a pandemic as the media advertised it.

Media refraining from sensationalism never advertised the mexican influenza (swine flu) as a pandemic, only something that has the potential to become a pandemic. Critical thinking keeps people alert, but not scared. The media should focus on the influenza without scaring people. Panic is counterproductive. Maybe the critical time will be in 2011. Virus experts are still studying the Spanish flu from 1918 and there’s some evidence that the first deaths occurred in 1916 on a very small scale. Viruses mutate. It could be different this time. The mutation might make it even more harmless. We don’t know yet. Awareness and more research is a good thing.

If you calculate your daily personal risk for the next 4 weeks. Most likely the most dangerous thing is getting into your car. So we have to keep risks in perspective.