So, is the swine flu really everywhere state-side? I don’t watch the news (except on occasion on line and only segments I deem serious) so I’ve not been exposed to the onslaught of media attention. People get the flu all the time–swine or no swine. To me, it seems like the media doing it’s usual reporting where they make something as old as we can remember seem new and urgent.

Last year just before the swine flu scare, 1/3 of the people I worked with caught a wicked ‘cold’ that came back with one person from Mexico. Some were diagnosed with flu, others not; still all of them felt like crap. No one died.

When I ask why swine flu is different from regular flu people say, ‘oh, well, it could evolve into something deadly!’ But that’s true of every virus or bacteria . . . particularly of bacteria with the ritualistic overuse of antibiotics in people, livestock etc.

That said, I think your point about creating ‘mega-strains’ holds true for any of those bugs. We seem to be doing quite well at heading down that path.

I wonder if someday a ‘mega strain’ of people will be created: those who survive climate change, economic depression and resistant bacteria/parasites etc. They might be even more resistant, dangerous and infectious than present day humans.

How does one strain outcompete another? Why can’t they both exist at the same time?

I think this all boils down to a massive fear of death and also a sense of entitlement to never feel uncomfortable…cold, hot, in pain, ill, etc. Instead of rest, fluids, and staying away from other people and accepting that we will die, we bombard every illness, discomfort, etc. with an arsenal that just screams overkill.

And the medical establishment trashes the environment just as much if not more so than other industries, but it is supposedly justified in the name of keeping every single parasitic human alive for the longest time possible.

I wrote a post about our fear of death and the other premises of medicine a couple years ago:

http://veganprimate.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/meaning-part-2-the-premises-of-medicine/

ERE, what advantage is there (for a virus) to mutate into something more deadly to its host? Alternatively, what disadvantage is there for a strain that is less deadly, even if transmission improves for the virus?

I like being sick. I get to skip work and friends bring me tasy soup while I watch movies.

Plus every sniffle and cough I get ultimately teaches my immune system how to be more effective. Not sure what the sources are but I remember reading that obsessively protecting children from germs actually retards the development of their immune systems.

Antibiotics and virus infection dont belong in the same article.

I appreciate the vulgarisation effort but you may have gone a few steps too far.

While it may be cool anthropomorphizing a virus, it isn’t a person and it doesn’t think. The flue doesn’t get together in a strategy meeting somewhere and plot, “Guys, they may have us on the run, but we’ve placed sleeper agents in their sick…we’ll hit them in their hospitals.”

The problem isn’t the usual flu. The usual flu has a nice relationship with us that has gone on since there were people. It makes us sick. We get better. It can kill too, but usually just the young, sick, or old…and judging from the comments posted here, there doesn’t seem to be much sympathy for any of these groups here.

The real problem is the unusual flu. A flu that typically infects birds or pigs that mutates enough that it can cross over species and infect us. The virus is stupid. It could kill us dead in 24 hours…it’s used to infecting pigs or birds. That’s why there is a fear of the unusual flu.

And there’s good reason for the fear.

We’ve been lucky for almost a century. But it has been more than luck. It’s been good science and good sanitation practices. In the old days they lined bodies up like cord wood due to H1N1. To give you an idea, 3-6% of the worlds population died from the disease in 2 short years. The stench from decaying bodies in the city was almost unbearable.

I am not really following your virus analogy. I think you are talking about excessive usage of antibiotics which is definitely a problem in terms of creating resistant strands.

I am not an expert but this is how i thought viruses work:
Younger the virus more deadly it is. It actually kills the host too fast (like ebola) and dies out too fast. Ebola most likely jumped onto humans around 100 years ago based on the known records. Older viruses (such as herpes) have evolved for a much longer time and turned into something much less deadly but reached the ultimate goal of survival and living in their hosts basically forever. I don’t think viruses compete with each other. Eliminating one virus does not benefit the other virus type.

If i am wrong my apologize, but i do believe you should be using bacteria as an example for your thought. Meaning, killing off weak bacteria only leaves you with the strongest strain of those bacteria. Viruses don’t really adapt under fast changing conditions. They only evolve very slowly or make a “jump” from animal to human. There is also random mutations which have much less probability of actually turning into a more deadly virus (like going airborne).

Kate one of the last places you want to be when you are sick is a hospital. There is all kinds of germs in a hospital and with your immune system not tip top it’s a bad thing to be exposed to all the stuff floating around in one.

Elderberry Tincture fights colds and flu, as does Echinacea, Golden Seal and Garlic. Look into them. And they have no side effects like most meds the doctor gives you.

Vadim_go your post is confusing to say the least as it’s unclear what side of the herbal issue you are on in the post you made???

And I have trouble understanding what my suggestion of taking some elderberry tincture or Echinacea to fight off the flu has to do with chopping holes in someones body and letting blood drain out.

By the way this is what killed George Washington. He let people bleed him, had he taken some elderberry tincture and or Echinacea he very well may have lived longer.