US DECLARES A SWINE FLU EMERGENCY

23 month baby just died in Texas. Damn, I had this weird hope that it wasn't going to be all that fatal after all, being identified and treated promptly, and all that. Certainly takes the fun out of it. I know lots of babies die every day from all kinds of things, but as a father of a 2 year old (and a 6 year old), I can't help but feel for the family... and **** myself just a little bit.

I struggle with approaching it rationally, and being concerned for my family.

i think the one comfort is the age of the victim, it's obviously sad for the family, but in a normal flu season the young and the elderly are most susceptible, the fact that a lot of the mexican victims were mid twenties, and none of the younger people in canada and the us, suspected to have the flu, seem to be in serious danger is a good sign

Boy, how we deny our national treasures. Youve already got Hogan and whats is name, why note Pirate Pete?

I'll have to disagree with you on that one.



Here's a rational consideration: Normally the flu kills thousands in the US annually. (I think the number is already at 13,000 for this year.) US deaths from this "pandemic"? One.

I think it is sometimes ok to be irrational to some degree or another.

If in the course of altering my behavior in a way that I feel better prevents infection, I get some weird looks, that's totally ok.

I have to alter my definition of what is rational depending on my environment.

For instance, normally I just wash my hands well after using the restroom at work, turning off the faucets with a part of my arm I wouldn't be putting near my mouth, nose, eyes.
Now I'm turning off the faucets with a paper towel, drying my hands with another paper towel, and opening the door to the rest room, and back to my office with another.

Considering the fact I know not everyone washes their hands regularly, I don't consider that irrational.

I'm also going to stop going out to yoga class until all this is settled, practicing my yoga at home instead. Being in a warm room with a dozen other people doing deep breathing doesn't seem very sanitary at this moment.

I'll probably go to the supermarket when I know it is not so busy, and won't spend any more time there than I have to.

Fortunatley, none of this will make me feel socially deprived. It's no big deal if for the duration I spend my time just @ home or work. If I had kids that weren't school age, well, they can spend their time at home too, since my husband is there.

That's what normal precautions mean to me.

Those are my normal precautions. Because even when there is no swine flu, I despise clinging to porcelain objects.

aside, I don't know why all public restrooms don't put a wastebasket right near the door.

Some do, and it makes it much easier to open a door with your paper towel, and toss it on the way out.
At work it's no big deal, since I can toss it when I go into the office....but if you're out and about and use a towel to open the door, there's no where to put it.

Some places do put a basket there, and I think that's very considerate.

I despise places that only provide the airblowers.

And, if I were designing restrooms, why not make the whole thing waterproof, and have an automatic spray that disinfects everything and runs out a drain in the floor?

Okay, so I think I got it. I think got the swine flu.

This morning I noticed several rather large, ozzing warts on my genitals. I thought to myself, "****, warty balls, just like a pig."

But I've read that the swine flu that's materialized in the US appears to be milder than the strain causing fatalities in Mexico.

Dodged a bullet there! LOL!

agree, there's a grocery store i go to that has great washrooms, they've got no doors leading into the washroom (it's an offset entrance so nobody can just look in), and they have paper towels, auto taps in the sink, auto flush toilets and urinals, so apart from touching ones own body, you only have to touch the soap dispenser and the stall door if you're using it

Those airblow hand dryers are a petri dish of all sorts of rot and disease inside, and they come equipped with a moist air germ dispenser so that your hands are evenly coated with a microscopic layer of pestilence. Id rather lick my hands dry, at least my spit is a bacteriostat.

Eyep.

Meanwhile, looks like there may be a case in Franklin County (my county). Eh. Oh ****. Eh.

http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/franklin_county_investigates_swine_flu_case/15261/

oh ****

You know what I don't trust?

Those antibacterial gels.

I don't care what anyone says, there's nothing like the old wash, rinse, 2nd wash, 2nd rinse to get those germs down the drain.


I told this story before here, but it's so disgusting I'll tell it again.

She's gone now, but there used to be this fat pig of a woman who NEVER washed her hands in the restroom.

She apparantly had never heard of a courtesy flush either. One time I went in the rest room as she was walking out the stall where it was obvious she had just taken an enormous stinking ****. The miasma was incredible. I went in the stall farthest away from the one she had used, and listened as she combed her hair, picked some zits, etc. but never turning on the water...When I left the restroom a minute later, I saw her standing outside, smoking a cigarette, putting her hand up by her mouth, probably picking her teeth for all I know.

At a later date I was washing my hands when she came out the stall, and again, made no move to wash her hands, and started to leave.

I....couldn't.....stand.....it.....

"Why don't you ever wash your hands after going to the bathroom?" I asked.

Well, that stopped her.

"I...I'm allergic to the soap they use"....yeah like you keep track of what the custodian buys...

Then she said she always uses a antibacterial gel she keeps at her desk.

sure you do.

see, these Tyfhoid Mary's live amongst us.

Ayup.

Understanding the social factor and the importance of courtesy, etc. I wonder how much of a difference neurotic hand washing and gymnastic paper towel use really matters.

The fact is we live in a world with germs. For every bathroom door you fastidiously avoid touching their are keyboards, and counter tops, and coffee makers and thousands of other things you touch that are shared with other human beings.

Hand washing... sure. Covering my mouth when I cough, OK. Keeping my distance from obviously sick people, sure. The other things being suggested seem arbitrary and excessive. None of these little things come even close to mitigating the risk I take hugging my 4 year old when she comes home from pre-school (four year olds are not very hygienic).

Life is for living, not worrying.

So, do you encourage your daughter to touch things in public restrooms?

Sure, life is risky. But at the same time, one can take reasonable measures to protect oneself from disease.

Reasonable simply varies from person to person.

Life is also NOT about maximizing risk. Im not Evel Knievel and neither are my kids. NOT getting a cold in winter by being a bit more fastidious about handashing is preferable to just inviting the plague inside. This year we all went cold free and Ive been to Argentina twice and have travelled the byways and given talks at gatherings and Ive been in the presence of many afflicted folks (especially in schools) and I think that my little lavage execrise has helped more than a bit.

I question rather these "reasonable measures" even protect you from disease in any significant way. I accept hand washing as a prudent public health measure.

I doubt that people who open the door with paper towels are, scientifically speaking, at any less risk than those of us who just open then the darn door. These are religious rituals that people do to make themselves feel better. Some people have trouble accepting the fact that there are things, like illness, that are simply out of our control.

I object to cargo cult rituals-- especially those that don't have any real affect on our safety.

Cargo cults have been mostly outlawed in the South Pacific. They were getting somewhat dangerous in the last century.