Agree, but still a scary headline. Maybe designed so people will start to take the situation seriously.

Cheers, Rick

Scarey, my arse. You've got more chance of dying crossing the road than of contacting 'Swine Fever'. Give it a rest you scare mongers.

Not what I meant at all Coventry. My point is that the media should not be allowed to publish such crap for the general populous to ingest. It is scaremongering, but many people believe what they read in the 'shit sheets. If this does happen then i am afraid that we will all be Coventried!

Cheers, Rick

Lets hope everyone gets a clue. Most Americans that visit Thailand work over-seas and do not reside in the states.

Bakeman exactly.
The ONLY Americans who would be a risk are RECENTLY arrived.
An that is pretty small numbers right now.
And the likelyhood of one of 300 million+ people
being right next to one of the contagious 300 people is pretty small too.


I can sound like I am from several places,
but tended to be american and just say:
I NEVER EVER VOTED FOR BUSH, don't lay that crap on me...
(glare of disgust) And it shut them up pretty fast,
and I imagine I can say that about being here for ages too.

I wonder how many Thais of the reactionary variety
can tell a yank from a brit that fast?

This post has been edited by animatic: 2009-05-01 21:50:32

Hi Animatic, I don't think that many other people did either, as I recall that was a fixed election too. Correct me if I am wrong.

Cheers, Rick

I really wish I had brought over my SOMBRERO. It would be a big kick to walk around big crowds with that on, but I suppose sneezing it up would be pushing it. It would be an interesting experiment to see if one of those phone it in flu spies picked up the bait.

 sombrero.jpg ( 7K ) Number of downloads: 1


This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-02 01:05:53

"Agreed, panic is not helpful. However, the H1N1 as a NEW virus (meaning people have no defense against it) has the potential to mutate into being a massive killer of healthy young people..."

That's the same argument used by the people who tried to make "bird flu" into a pandemic - "oh my, it could mutate". Eight years later, where's the epidemic, where's the pandemic, where are the millions of deaths? The flu vaccine has contained an H1Ni component for several decades, ever since the "swine flu" panic in the mid-70's. Anyone who has been exposed to or vaccinated for any strain of H1Ni has some level of protection. Even without the protection, the mortality rate of the current Mexican flu is very low. As with any infection, the very young and the elderly are more at risk.

Anyone who has been exposed to or vaccinated for any strain of H1Ni has some level of protection.
The press is reporting the OPPOSITE.


Even without the protection, the mortality rate of the current Mexican flu is very low.
Nobody in the world knows this yet, certainly not YOU. We currently have NO IDEA how many infections there were in Mexico.

As with any infection, the very young and the elderly are more at risk.
With a killer pandemic as in 1918, healthy young adults died massively, unlike a normal flu cycle.

Hopefully, this is not another 1918. But it could be, and someday that will happen again. The international caution and response is very appropriate and I do not see that it has escalated to panic yet anyway.

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-02 18:16:15

Aren't all natural disasters affecting the US officially designated as being the fault of Ellen Degeneres?

That was in the Bush years.

"The press is reporting the OPPOSITE."

Of course they are. They need to sell misery and panic. The media reported a bird flu epidemic, which never materialized. The media reported an epidemic of mad cow disease, which never materialized. Hey, big surprise, now they have a Mexican flu epidemic.

"Nobody in the world knows this yet"

Of course they do, but it's not necessary to have an exact count of all infections to make an educated guess. Your belief is that the streets of Mexico are strewn with rotting corpses, and the rest of the world is justthisclose of having the same problem.

"With a killer pandemic as in 1918, healthy young adults died massively, unlike a normal flu cycle."

That's true and, over the past 90 years, several protocols have been developed to fight the infection: flu vaccines, various antivirals, vaccines for pneumonia, better sanitation...

You completely distorted reality with your last post. I make it a policy to stop engagement with dishonest posters like you. Good bye.

Specifically, this absurd comment, I never said anything of the kind. Don't bother replying to me, thank you:



This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-02 18:28:37

Some feedback from a real live Mexicano on another forum. He clearly feels abused by the hysteria.

Rodrigo from La Paz, MX

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-03 17:58:35

Unbelievable ! -

Anti-Immigrant Hysterics’ Swine Flu Blame-Game Generates Blowback

Jay Severin, a radical right-wing talk show radio host from Boston, has been indefinitely kicked off the air after making some brazen comments, including calling Mexicans “primitives” and “women with mustaches and VD” who “leech” off the U.S..

More specifically, Boston’s WTKK-FM decided to suspend Jay Severin after the following comments sparked deep concern among Mexicans and other Latinos in Boston:

So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico — women with mustaches and VD — now we have swine flu. … We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of crimminalieans already here.

When we are a magnet for primitives around the world-and it’s not the primitives fault by the way. I’m not blaming them for being primitives, I’m merely observing they are primitives–[W]hen scoop up some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. … It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country. … Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.

http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/05/02/an...rates-blowback/

That's almost funny. What is it they are speaking then?
BTW, in the US, they are hardly leeches unless by leeches he means super hard working.

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-03 18:47:16

Well, so far, the silly phobic behavior appears to be targeted at Mexican nationals. There is now a big diplomatic tiff between China and Mexico over China's sometimes irrational treatment of Mexican nationals. For example:

Bangkok Post

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-05-04 16:06:06

Third UK school closes over swine flu

It seems to be spreading globally, but not in the proportions that were first suggested.
Yahoo story

Cheers, Rick

The WHO is still predicting a global spread and warns of a lethal second wave. They are discounting wishful thinking reports that this is over.

Viva Mexico!

The quote might be better said, " So far from God, so close to the Gringo." I know, being a native of Alta y California Sur.

How do you say DITTO in Mexicanese?

What happen to the point of the thread.

Its an old thread.

Reading thru it I think not many got the point.

I think the original post was a good idea Jingthing. I'm a US citizen and have traveled a couple of times in Thailand and India since you first started the thread back in April/May. I haven't had anyone ask me questions about where I come from, other than a medical questionair that everyone on my plane had to fill out in Kolkata upon arrival from Bangkok, (I think that was in early July). That all seemed understandable and well carried out by the people at the Kolkata airport. I don't know how effective it would be in limiting the spread of flu though, (I assume that is what they were hoping to do, but I could be wrong about that). I flew into Bangkok from California the other day and wasn't questioned about my health by anyone at the airport. If I get my visa as applied for, I will be off to India again in a week. This time I fly into Delhi, so it will be interesting to see what if any screening they will have there. I haven't had any flu vaccines yet and haven't really looked into where I could get them. Perhaps I should have done so. I had the 'squirts' a couple of times in the last year and maybe even a mild fever or two. For all I know I could have had the swine or some other flu and not realized it. OK, too much rambling on my part, I just wanted to say I liked your idea of monitoring instances of possible 'flu fobia'. Cheers.