NEW THREAD!!!...The Stop the Panicking Already, !!!..thread

I do see people get a little nervous from time to time, maybe even a little panicky. However, there is a LOT of good solid scientific stuff posted and good advice from experienced people. That is the real reason I come to this forum often.

Ahhhhh, thank you! Prolonged periods of stress (such as pandemic panic) can have detrimental effects on the immune system right?! :)

All right...everybody just calm down already!!!

Ok, good. Now, what are the things we DO know? This is a flu with a fairly mild profile as yet. Some have died, true, but there are people who die every day of a variety of causes, we don't go all half-cocked over, say, MRSA related illness and death, do we? Concern, yes, that is warranted, but people, when folks actually start talking about the suspension of individual rights and speaking as if we are on the edge of total global meltdown, then I think things have gone too far...

So very true.

According to UNAIDS, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 2.8 million (between 2.4 and 3.3 million) lives in 2005 of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.

But I don't see constant non-stop news reports tracking the virus, or hospitals, clinics & drug stores setting up booths selling condoms.

Thanks for the thread, RuR.

This forum needs a break room.

Well, I for one appreciate all the informative threads on this forum. I can come here and get most if not all updates on the state of this pandemic in one place (thank you, Indigo Girl!) Knowledge is power, and the more informed I stay the more I can help EASE the panic of the faculty, staff, parents and students at the school I serve.

I do not think there is any reason to panic, but there is certainly need for concern when previously healthy young adults and children have died from this. It is not just another flu bug. If more people are aware of this, maybe they will seek medical attention sooner and some deaths could be prevented.

The 14 year old athlete who died in Texas is in my area. The entire community is distraught over the loss of this precious life. If her death serves to make people more aware of the fact that this virus can kill, and quickly, perhaps it will not be in vain.

~A~

There now, do you feel alittle better? That was just a small dose of virtual Ativan. Larger doses might be appropriate if we continue to fret over this issue which is largely "out of our control".

This is just the *newest* in a long history of medical headline makers.

Remember the "bird flu"? What happened to that? I haven't heard anything on the news about it recently.

Remember SARS? Hmm..what happened to that?

There are lots of diseases out there that people get and die of. There are lots of diseases out there that some people get and others don't.

Histoplasmosis, ever heard of that? Does the mere mention of the name make you scared? The CDC says that 80% of the people in the Ohio Valley have had it, gotten over it, and never even knew they were sick.

Much ado about nothing in my opinion. Wash your hands, don't sneeze on each other. Don't run to the doctor with every sniffle or fever. People (kids even) die. We don't have to sue people over it.

When I was in high school one of my classmates shot another one "on accident", a girl died in a car wreck, a boy shot himself. I know of "small community loss syndrome". Believe you me! We had the yellow ribbons out recently when a local boy drown while on vacation in Colorado.

Sorry, I kinda went on a tangent.

Pat

I don't think that there is an alarmist tone to this forum. I have learned a lot of really good information from indigo girl. She is very well informed following this pandemic very closely all the while relaying this information to those of us who are, in fact, concerned. Concern doesn't necessarily denote panic. I, for one, am not panicking, but I do have very deep seated concerns as my daughter is 6 months pregnant...and we live in close approximation to where other pregnant women have gotten extremely ill. In fact, one died recently.

So, while there isn't a need to call out the special forces, I think indigo girl is doing us all a fantastic service. I've learned a lot. If you can read past the hysteria that the media is transmitting...we could all learn a lot and do our jobs more efficiently.

Forewarned is forearmed.

OK, I have a sense of humor!

The self appointed panic police? Who better to judge the difference between "panic" and informed concern?

Did you really post that "There is a distinct possibility that this virus had a somewhat less than natural origin."

And, I am still shaking my head over those posts hinting that Baxter Labs is providing swine flu vaccine for the US when they aren't.

I have been looking around for the panic that is supposed to be happening here, but I can't seem to find it anywhere but on this thread. I guess we fundamentally disagree about what panic really is. I can't say that I ever can recall any threads over here

about "the suspension of individual rights and speaking as if we are on the edge

of total global meltdown...or we don't NEED to spin the notion that we will all be

holed-up with our shotguns and canned goods waiting for the roving gangs!" But,

there are a whole lot of threads here now, and maybe I missed it...

Documenting about death from a contagious disease is not dinner conversation, but it isn't about panic either. Many threads are about suspected and confirmed cases, info on the virus itself, PPE, vaccine information, and the like, and not all are mine. You know, if this kind of information makes you uncomfortable, perhaps you shouldn't read about it.

You certainly are entitled to your opinions about panic. I propose that we agree to disagree.

Cheers!

At least we are here learning about the flu - which is NOT the same as seasonal flu. I can't tell you how many coworkers don't know a thing about it. That little children are dying within 12 hours of acquiring this? I can also tell you if one more person tells me to wash my hands? Whew....ALSO our hospital has now told us to wash our hands instead of using hand sanitizer (As Much anyway) because the manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. That tells me people and companies have bought it up and are trying to prepare not freak out-too bad the hand sanitizer people didn't plan for this better when the pandemic was first announced back in April. That tells me those who are fundamentally involved in preparing and protecting people were unprepared themselves. I don't think we can discuss this too much if they were caught unprepared!. Plan don't panick. Educate yourself with reason. I think no one here is panicking but we are trying to find info that we do not get from the media. How do I know we aren't getting this from the media? Because my coworkers are mostly in the dark. They are more concerned with forced vaccines than actual presentation of the disease or whether they will have N95s available. I guess I would rather be a prepared freak vs a nonchalant statistic.