Enough Already

OK people, calm the eff down. Seriously. OK, so we have yet another foreign flu in our midst. How is this different from viruses past? We’ve most recently have bird flu and SARS. Go back further, and I had Bejing flu in 1996 and survived. Did it suck? Hell yeah! I was 16 years old and I’m an asthmatic. I missed 18 days of school because I’d feel better and try to go back to school and end up sicker. I got prescribed an antiviral that made it worse as well because I had an adverse reaction to the medication. So we’ll never fully know if the full sickness was just the flu or the flu combined with the reaction to the medication. Yes, people died from that flu as well. We lost a family friend in his 30′s who was a severe asthmatic. But, don’t forget how many people die of the “regular” flu EVERY YEAR. And little do people know, it’s also possible to get the flu in the “off season.” I had the flu during the summer when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I remember because it because I hated being stuck inside during summer vacation.

I’m not buying into the swine flu hype of “Oh no! What do we do?” because it’s been around for over 30 years. Yep. The “officials” have seen this before. Shocked? I’m not. I suggest you read this article and scroll to the 2nd to last paragraph. This isn’t a new thing. It may be new at these levels, but if you read each media article closely, it seems all cases stem from someone who traveled to Mexico or who was exposed to someone who traveled to Mexico recently. So you know what? Don’t go to Mexico until they get this resolved.

Take all the same precautions you take during normal cold and flu season. Don’t forget we’re also in prime Spring allergy season here in the US. Grass season starts any day now, and trees are going strong and getting ready to wind up here about the end of this month. Yes, My family is so allergy laden I can tell you what season it is by allergen. Not every sneezing person will be contagious. Even if your sneezing and runny nose is only allergies you should still be tossing your tissues and washing your hands. Snot’s just gross no matter how you slice it. If you have allergies and get a fever, get checked out, and stay home from work to keep from infecting other people. Same as you should do for any illness because you know what? When you go shopping or to work with strep throat, you spread your germs. I don’t appreciate it when my husband then brings it home to me and the kids, or I pick up some new cootie at the grocery store. Let’s go back to exercising some common sense.

I still stand by my theory that this whole Swine Flu hype is that the government wants to distract the general public from what’s going on in Pakistan. It’s getting really ugly really fast over there. With a husband in the military, our family has a vested interest in what’s going on in the region. It could be his next duty assignment. Unfortunately all the American media is covering is the Swine Flu and creating mass hysteria for no real reason in the process.

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Category: allergies, health, military