To: Yorikke who wrote (263 ) 6/19/2009 7:41:52 AM From: Rock_nj Read Replies (1) | Respond to The reason for fear is that pandemics have happened before, and while no two pandemics are alike, educated scientific assumptions can be made regarding how they might play out based on lack of resistence and the nature of the new flu virus and past pandemics. Nobody would have been particularily concerned in the Spring of 1918 about the mild flu that was circulating, but by the Spring of 1919 a major pandemic had infected 100s of millions killing millions. Perhaps this will be a mild pandemic like 1968, and we will escape the worst, but perhaps it will be another 1918 with 100s of millions infected (it could get up to the billions before this is done playing out), millions dead, and the economy and everyone's lives severely disrupted. Nothing much I or anyone can do about it now, expect for hope that the advances that have been made in medicine can deliver a vaccine in time to head of the worst and support those efforts. I agree that irrational fear doesn't help anything, but neither does putting ones head in the sand and ignoring the warning signs. Now is the time to prepare for the fall/winter 2009 flu season.
