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Champaign County Prepares
Help the Champaign-Urbana public health department correct any rumors about flu out there. Post questions or concerns that you hear. They will respond. Join their Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Champaign-IL/Champaign-County-Prepares/57372106172
Tags: flu questions facebook
September 14th, 2009 at 8:34 am
All this Swine Flu stuff seems incredible overhyped to me. Is this really something we should be so concerned about? Isn’t it basically the same as the flu? I’ve had a couple professors saying classes might be canceled later in the semester if enough people are sick. I just can’t imagine THAT many people are going to come down with this thing, and even if they do it doesn’t seem like all that long of a recovery time. Am I totally off base here? Should I be more worried?
I wash my hands regularly and cough into my sleeve or a tissue no matter the threat of a virus or not. It’s the hygienic and smart thing to do. All the warnings and information that is being distributed seems to be fear mongering more than anything else. Something to keep people paranoid and nervous when they ought to be focusing on bigger issues like a failing economy, corrupt health care system, and broken education policies. H1N1 as a threat? I say it’s more a distraction than anything else.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Is this something we should really be concerned about?
Yes, a flu outbreak for which we presently do not have a vaccine is something we all should be really concerned about. From both a personal health viewpoint and a community health viewpoint. And when you consider that the present H1NI (FORMERLY SWINE FLU) outbreak preceeds the normal seasonal flu season, a bad situation is further compounded.
Isn’t it basically the same as the [seasonal] flu?
No. The HIN1 flu strain is not the same flu as seasonal flu strain and we do not have a vaccine for it–yet. We will have a vaccine in a few (maybe three) weeks. It’s not that H1N1 is worse than seasonal flu but collectively it affects a different set of people, most notably young, healthy adults like most college students. (for which we have vaccine every year)
Personal health vs. community health
Think about how horrible it FEELS to be really sick and think about the disruption is causes in your life by making you immobile for up to one week. Then think about the chaos caused when whole communities of people become sick at the same time. This could be a majority of people living on the same floor in dormitories; it could be a significant number of students absent from elementary and secondary schools; it could be a significant number of workers on a small production line. A flu outbreak affects the workplace, schools and disrupts community patterns generally. When the cause of the absence is communicable disease a fear factor is naturally added because people are trying to protect themselves [or not] from something invisible which has the ability to disrupt daily patterns of living which we all take for granted.
Warnings as fear mongering
Public health warnings are not developed to instill fear. They are intended to distribute factual information so that people can take appropriate action to protect themselves and their families. The are also meant to stimulate awareness of the effects on person, family and community so that whole groups of people can work together to protect themselves and each other collectively. When whole groups of people are disabled collectively, a major disruption of the local economy will develop. We have not had such a disruption in recent memory. The last major flu outbreak which truly disrupted communities was the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 which is well documented. In fact, those of us living now are indirectly survivors of that outbreak.
H1N1 is a major threat. We should be distracted enough to take action to protect self and have a plan to take care of others.