According to my sources, all known types of influenza kill 1.4% of everyone who has it. Swine flu causes death in 1.4% of people who catch it, but far more people are vulnerable to catching it if exposed because it's a new form of the germ that no one has has an opportunity to build up antibodies against yet.
It should be noted that I am not an epidemiologist, I've just been talking to someone who's been talking to one. My non-professional "mom spit is as an aseptic analgesic" hypothesis is that the best defense against this disease is to have previously licked enough door knobs to have built of a hearty immune system, and to keep oneself generally healthy and reasonably clean now. Also that thing about washing hands and not sneezing on people so as to prevent excess transmission if you are sick is generally pretty smart. I might be wrong on this, but I am in fact genetically immune to both the Bubonic Plague and tuberculosis,and I think the CDC does a better job than they're generally given popular credit for, so I'm not personally too worried about it.
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asenathwaite
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-06 06:26 pm (UTC)It should be noted that I am not an epidemiologist, I've just been talking to someone who's been talking to one. My non-professional "mom spit is as an aseptic analgesic" hypothesis is that the best defense against this disease is to have previously licked enough door knobs to have built of a hearty immune system, and to keep oneself generally healthy and reasonably clean now. Also that thing about washing hands and not sneezing on people so as to prevent excess transmission if you are sick is generally pretty smart. I might be wrong on this, but I am in fact genetically immune to both the Bubonic Plague and tuberculosis,and I think the CDC does a better job than they're generally given popular credit for, so I'm not personally too worried about it.