If the swine flu strain spread to your town, would you be willing to stay home -- and tell others to stay six feet away?

The swine flue has not shown itself to be deady in Norh America. Infact, getting infected now might even help if the virus mutates to a more deadly strain.

It HAS shown itself to be deadly in North America ... remember Mexico? Mexico is a part of North America ...

But besides that, I agree with you, with some reservations.

People, stay home for a week or two. Stay home, read to your kids, plant a garden, read a good book or two.

It's a no brainer really.

I am guessing you do not have a job? There are so many people struggling to keep their jobs in this terrible economy and they are barely hanging on. Small businesses are down to bare bones just to keep their doors open. A business owner finding himself/herself with no employees could be looking at the end and then there are more out of work. I don't know the answer but unless everyone/everything closes down no one can expect people to walk away from a job.

I'm not too concerned. Now, I do use hand sanitizers anyway when shopping or at the gym (a habit I picked up while traveling in 3rd world countries and continue to this day) and I do wash my hands and I do like my personal space, but I'm not going to stop going about my regular life.

I can't live like that. I have things to do!

Why did Obama have the CDC and the CIA start this epidemic?

Is this so he can look presidential, have a crisis of his own to deal with?

Will Obama take advantage of this crisis too, enact civil regulations to further restrict the abilities of americans to think for themselves?

Never let a good crisis go to waste, even if you have to create the crisis yourself.

Was Airforce One actually spraying Swine Flu virus over New York and Obama disguised it as a photo op?

(of course this is all nonsens, I'm just stirring up the conspiracy theory nuts....or maybe...) roflmao.

North America is considered the UNITED STATES. Mexico is by itself and is a different country. Definetly, not one of our states. Now for the question, I feel it is the safest approach to confine your family and self to your home for a couple weeks. Especially, if you have young children or older seniors in your family whose immune system are not as strong. Swine flu has now affected our country from a country whose poverty level is very high and the people are not well educated. I live in Nevada, also known as Little Mexico. lol

"Captain" Not So Marvelous: i am appalled that anyone sane would inject your kind of paranoia and political hatred -into an already very difficult challenge to our nation. And cowardly to say all this and then cop out with a "ha ha funny" excuse.

For some sane folks from a former Navy Medic:: Wash your hands after you touch shared facilities, turn off the faucets after washing *with a paper towel*. Use another paper towel to open and close the washroom door after washing. Use your foot to push the flushing mechanism or again, use a paper towel to do this.

Do not touch produce in your local store without first washng your hands or using a hand sanitizer. (Many schools use this inexpensive chemically based sanitizer after recesses to protect little ones from germs. )

Shop when stores are not crowded.
Check out home entertainment for you and yours until this shakes out a bit more. If you can work at home -- as I do -- terrific. If not, stay in your own cubicle or space as much as possible. Again, wash your hands frequently keep a little bottle of cheap hand sanitizer on your desk and use it frequently. Depending on your job, try to telecommute more.

Stay at least 3 feet from strangers,preferably six feet. Covrer your mouth and nost if you cough. Step away from other folks who cough or sneeze. (Mama's advice reigns again>)

The paper masks you see used for protection are porous and not only do not protect you much but they also up the panic . Real safety requires a mask that is not easy to obtain and very expensive. I used one when I worked with smoke aversion therapy groups; they are miserable. They made me feel claustrophobic And their smell made me nauseus.

Its' been advised to see our doctor if the symptoms arrive; it is also said there are medications that can help if taken within 48 hours of the arrival of symptoms. According to online medical advice, the meds are called Tamiflu and Relenza.

I think if we all use our common sense and keep our heads, this too shall pass. And please folks, let's not add to this newest challenge by trying to inject religious and political nutsiness into folks already worried about their families and themselves --- Shame on you, Private not so marvelous..

North America is a continent, consisting of the United States, Canada and MEXICO!

ummmm,

So is Central America a seperate continent?

Morons! Use your internet to educate yourself and perhaps you may be able to make intelligent and credible statements! May I suggest Google Earth.

I agree totally... or even basic 3rd grade geography? OMG.

Central America is a geographic region, consisting of portions of the North American and South American continents. It is not a continent by itself, only a region. Google is great!

With only a 99% survival rate, I can see now is the time to travel. Everyone else will be home cowering in the corner.

The only was around the job issue is a governmental order to stay home. No employer can cross that line. It is possible to link a home PCs to a workplace system, but I have found access unreliable, and some folks don't have PCs at home. Otherwise,

I wish I was retired or just a housewife...working sucks, not matter what you do,and always getting worse. Now, we've reached the end of the line. Go to work - have food, clothing, shelter (& health care) - or possible death.

Excuse me! What do you mean "just a housewife"? Working outside the home DOES suck, but if you think being a housewife is easy work, you've got another think coming!

No, I don't remember Typhoid Mary.

But I did read about her.  Poor lady...

Mary was sister to Measles Mona. The whole family had issues, cousin Chicken Pox Charlie, Bovine Spongy Form Encephaloneuropathy Betty, just a bunch of freaks!

ACORN will be handing out flu masks with voter registration cards today.

If you watch the video then you would see that the the posibility of a case has not been confirmed and Florida PRESS have mentioned nothing but possible chance that that is what it is. I dont know if you trying to freak people out for no reason but the comment you left is VERY childish and ill spoken. I feel bad for your mother.

Actually, it was confirmed this morning. www.tcpalm.com

I heard that Obama was using Airforce One to spray the flu virus over New York, it wasn't a photo op afterall. Be very afraid.

The CDC has a hand in this too, part of their pay back to Obama for all the stimulus money they got for "research".

ROFLMAO.

Private not so Marvelous; I get it.

You are stirring up the conspiracy crap for dollars! What a sleezy way to make a buck. The best folks who are truly worried about this latest challenge is to starve him out of business. I have heard these REthug ghostwriters make a fixed fee for each of us who answer them ... so bye bye Private.

I'm back.

cha-ching, cha-ching!

by the way, I'm a Military Vet Not For Obama. And I don't get paid for my postings, perhaps you do. My guess is you're actually a draft dodging liberal who works for the antiquated media and are trying to suppress the truth.

Obama is spreading the Swine Flu, be very afraid.

Beware the grassy knoll. Oswald was not alone. Elvis lives. Michael Jackson is really Diana Ross. Ted Kennedy wasn't driving.

LMAO!

Good one.........It makes me feel good that there is actually another person that See's life as it is.....

is he hanging out of the plane or does he just have the forward window open....I thought I saw him.................once on my bike coming home from school I got hit with male sterile fruit flies form a dispensing truck as I sped up to read the sign....maybe that is what Obama is trying to do, sterilize the masses...he already has them under mind control.........LOL...Mind control, now that is funny,what minds? I love it no matter what serious conversation takes place that bozo name surfaces......

cc - just use common sense - wash hands frequently and yes, stay away from people if you can. If you do get sick then definiately see your physician. I can understand your fear if you are already at risk due to poor health.

Good luck and hope you'll be ok.

I hope it does go away like scares from the past! It's scary how fast things spread. Isolating NOW would help slow the spread and stop this illness! They should have banned travel to and from Mexico from day one, that would slow the spread a lot!

Hand washing is key but it's airbourne, not much we can do about that no matter how clean our hands are. When someone sneezes or coughs and doesn't completly cover their mouths, that flu germ can linger in the air for hours, all it takes is someone walking by to breath it in their mouth or nose or even get it in their eye and they can get sick or carry the illness home.

What worries me is all the people who say they're not worried, they're not going to stop what they do regularily etc. this is the attitude that will spread this illness, these are the same people who may not wash their hands often or who will go out in public even when they are feeling ill, push that shopping carriage around the store as the sneeze into their hands and touch the same handle that hundreds of other will in turn touch and pick up their germs.

Yea, I'm a germ freak and this scares me. If it gets any closer to my town, I'm keeping my kids home and staying away from public places! Better to be safe and over react than to be sorry.

you really shouldn't panic, the media is over hyping this , just like they do everything! In fact more people die from the common cold everyday OR auto accidents Or hundreds of other causes everyday. they just like to keep people in fear so they can pass more crap in congress...

to be honest, I think these pandemic flues are started by the drug companies so they can make more money selling more crap drugs to unhealthy americans. the best defense is to build your immune system, disease cannot live in a body with a high ph level ( alkaline)this has been proven over and over. I personally never get sick and never get flu shots and yes I keep my body alkaline. Do some reasearch and make better choices in food you eat and you will be fine.

CC,

Hang in there. Be carefull and use common sense. If you can keep public exposure to a minimum but don't give up on living life. I have several co-workers that are transplant recipients and I worry about what will happen to them.

notcloseminded - when was the last time you ever saw an American use a simple handkerchief when sneezing or coughing? No one carries hankies anymore. We blast micro-particulates with each explosive sneeze. One viral bit in your eye and there is their infection - common cold, influenza etc. etc.

My wish (well one of them) is that we get back to carrying the pocket hankie. It can be cloth or tissue. Maybe polite society had that one over on us. Perhaps they weren't so much being polite as saving their own lives!

I'm concerned that it'll mutate and become more aggresive. I'm not much of a science buff and I'm sure there's a lot to the proces of mutation, but it could get ugly if it gets more aggressive.

It's the freaking flu and they have medicine for it. Calm the f down people, or better yet, go get a drink at the closest watering hole. Ya'll get yourselves so worked up over something so small. I bet less than 100 people die from this in America and they will be the weakest of the weak.

well I sure hope that if you get this flu you stay home away from others!

It's not just a reg. flu and their isn't medicine for this strain, only thing they have is antivirals in hope that it will decrease the seriousness of this illness.

Bloomin' Bonehead, don't you get it!  There is no medicine for the flu....you either survive or ya don't.  There is not even "medicine" for the common flu we see every year, it just isn't severe enough to kill the healthy...it takes thousands of elderly, immune deficient, and afflicted elderly, instead.  Never mind that children have very low immunity to begin with.

If you think isolated outbreaks in five continents, with a geometric infection rate is small, you've had one drink too many, and your Darwinian sensitivites attest to an addled brain...one of the seven warning signs of Swine Flue!   Yikes...

You all need to read more about this. You do have Internet access!

The strand of this virus in Mexico has & is killing the young & strong!!! ((Ages 25-45))

This H1N1 virus causes the immune system to over react on the body thus causing whats called a Cytokine storm. Vaccines Tamilflu & Zanamivir (Relenza) are not Immune system boosters or Antibiotics.

The virus may come in waves stronger each time. I believe this is not a short-term problem.....

CLICK ON THESE FOR MORE INFO_

Viruses know no nationality, no ethnicity, no race, no gender, no political party...all viruses care about is a human host.  Unfortunately, the large portion of deaths are occuring in the rural areas where there is lack of appropriate information about the spread of the disease and health care.  It would be prudent for you to be come informed by referencing the CDC or the WHO for more scientific information regarding the disease, symptoms, what to do if infected, how to prevent the spread of infection, etc. etc. You are giving into opnely racist, culturally biased rhetoric that assumes that a certain group of people are some how more disease ridden or devoid of more human characteristics than  anyone else and this has nothing to do with immigration issues...how do you explain the pop of of the virus in travellers from all nationalites and from all over the world AND now from people who haven't travelled and have no contact with those who have travelled in and out of the US and/or Mexico?  So, it's important to be informed and give into blind, pathological reactions and scapegoating, it doesn't do anything but make a bad situation worse.

Good for you Steph:

I couldn't have said it better myself. Visuses dont care who you are or where you are. Their main purspose like any living being is to thrive and survive.

This flu is different because it's DNA is not just swine flu. It incorporates at 3 different flu viruses (Swine Flu, Bird/Avian Flu (remeber SARS?), and Human Flu). I suspect the deadly version is stronger in swine and bird dna than the less dangerous one. That's my 2 cent's.

This flu is different because the medical researchers have never seen this before. Is this completely new or simply never discovered before current technology? They don't know the answer to this one.

They are still working on why it has been so deadly in Mexico but relatively mild (in comparison) elsewhere - at least so far.

Even "regular" flu can be deadly - it is a serious disease especially for those with compromised immunity. The scary thing with this flu is in Mexico, this flu has killed those who are otherwise most resistant - those between 20 and 40 years of age.

This still isn't something to panic about - it's not "Captain Tripps". However it does need to be monitored.

It's not only the fact that there are 3 different proteins in the virus, it's that fact that it is something they have never seen before. It is possible that this virus could jump back into a pig host, rearrange itself again, and reemerge as yet another new virus, maybe more virulent than the one we're currently seeing, in the fall when it's back to flu season.

I don't think that this should be turned into a political issue. People generally keep themselves as clean as they are able to.

It may not be "Captain Trips" but I did see the Walking Dude the other day and he said lock your doors. Theirs a bad storm coming.

I'm not sure what "media" you are referring to Jeffenscot, but CNN and MSNBC could not be much clearer...and the World Health Organization just raised the alert from 3 to 4.

Besides, I don't suppose anyone in your own neighborhood has less than perfect hygene, drinks too much and pisses in the bushes, or doesn't wash their hands before they make you a sandwich at the local deli, right?

...as to the sanitation in major American cities, you might just want to take a stroll through E. Los Angeles, or Watts and then discuss the state of that infrastructure!

The media, WHO, various other world renowned scientists, even your family physician have said why this strain is different. As others have stated, it's a mix of 3 different species worth of flu virus. Every year, the human version of the virus changes, as do the others, there are no medicines to 'cure' the flu in any species. A vaccine only helps your body develop anti-bodies (those little buggers that kill off the virus over time), and the medicines the government will hand out is simply to alleviate the severity of the illness. This strain has never been seen before, so we have no anti-bodies built up to combat it. And they won't have a vaccine for another 5-6 months.

In 1918, the Spanish Flu, also known as the Swine flu (yup, H1N1, just a different strain they think) killed 20-50 million people worldwide. And it wasn't until the second wave, in the fall, when the most deaths occurred, due to ANOTHER version of the same virus that struck in the spring of 1918! The reason this is so hyped up is because unlike back in the beginning of last century, we know how to deal with it. If we can make simple steps, like stay home, wear a mask, wash our hands, we help ease the spread of this disease.

I speak for myself here, but I'd much rather either not get sick, or at least not get anyone else sick by wearing a mask, washing my hands, and staying home if this gets any worse. I'd rather not have the possibility of getting my friend's children sick, risk their death, than have a drink at the local coffee shop, when I can make just as good a cup of joe at home.

And if people are worried about loosing their job's, I'm sure there will be a government contingency plan to help in the event of a Pandemic, and they recommend staying home. Just like when soldier's are deployed, they have Job security, or the employers risk the wrath of the U.S. of A.

I call b.s. on your last comment Nikki. Given how the Fed gov't has stayed out of employment laws in each state, there is f-all that they can do to employers that decide to fire people for staying home. Legally, there is no 'wrath' that can be handed down as far as I'm aware.

It seems to me that whomever will say or think that mexicans are dirty people just because the swine flu broke out there first, is an extremely racist person and needs to either go back to school or seek god. I think that we as a nation shouldn't judge. do you know or are aware how much AIDS has spread in the USA.? if you are not aware, read a book. This is a pandemic that is loudly killing people. AIDS is quietly killing ..so get educated and read a little....we are all humans...just because we are americans and have it easier, it doesnt make u better, we all breath the same air and will end up in the same exact position at the end,in a hole. dead :)

The media hasn't told us why swine flu is different than any flu. They are creating a panic without telling us why we should panic. Mexico is dirty and poor so its no wonder people would die in that environment and not in a clean environment. Another reason to stop illegal immigration bringing their poor hygiene habits north.

And that, people, is what a diet of Fox News gets you.

Yeah. Stay home. Of course. Then, in a month, when the media has somehting else to sensationalize, go back to work and simply quote Foxnews and CNN experts that recommended staying home. Im' sure the company you work for will understand. After all, your life is on the line.

Thank you for your comment. I agree. I decided today to pull my children from all non-essential activities; however, I do have a 7 year old in first grade and the school is still open. I am terribly frightened about this and agree that if people don't take it seriously now, we will be sorry in a few weeks. I am already keeping my 18 month old and 5 year old home as much as possible and I am fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom who can do that. I feel badly for others who have to work and can't afford to take off.

Flu pregnant can be bad news. Good idea.

I don't think he meant it that way. He was criticizing the country, not the people. There is a cure, antibiotics. Some media doctors are saying that it might even cure itself with bedrest. I think this is alot of hype for nothing. once again, our media SUCKS and is looking to boost ratings with panicking everyone. An epidemic? no one has died yet. there are so many other diseases to worry about, and what about Iraq??????

Sorry, antibiotics are NOT a cure for the flu. The flu is a virus, antibiotics are only effective on bacterial infections. Antiviral drugs, for now, do appear to shorten the duration and severity of this bug, however, if the virus mutates (which most flu bugs do) it could become resistant to Tamiflu and the like. Also, my understanding is that they have started a "seed" (?) culture of the flu virus which they will need to develop a vaccine but that will take weeks (months?). As far as staying away from others during a pandemic...absolutely if it will help. It is not just about YOU people. We are all in this together. And to the person that might have to miss art class and shopping??? Puhlease!!!

What has been killing Mexico for the past 50 years is corruption.

your so right, We dont go around talking about the economic struggle that the U.S. is going through

be careful, you might slip in your shower. That kills more people than this over hyped flu

Well said, Megan re. pnemonia. Any flu can turn into pnemonia & that is what usually kills. Pnemonia vaccine shot = Very Important!

By the time people start dropping like flies, it will be too late. Commerce is not God. This is NOT a normal flu.

I recommend you stock up on supplies and prepare for the worst.

Haha! Good one!

Several shots of Jack a day will keep the swine away!

I like that, sounds like a prescription to me!

I'll have some o' that! Pass along that bottle!

Good idea! Also maybe a toner cartridge or 2? :-)