Posted

Jun 12th 2009

Mood

Heya people,

surely many of you hear about what’s going on right now concerning the swine flu. The WHO (World Health Organization) declared the highest alert level. Swine flu now officially is a pandemia.
I believe that one of the reasons for this is the rising number of infections over here in Germany. In the last 3-4 days we had and still have some fuss about it. A Japanese school in Düsseldorf got closed because at least 46 pupils got the swine flu.
Now.. tomorrow (Saturday) the “Japantag” (Japan Day or J-Day as it is called along many manga and anime fans) takes place in Düsseldorf. It’s a huge festival with up to one million visitors, mostly run by the Japanese community there – exactly that community that experiences all those infections right now (and there still are new infections from hour to hour). The authorities thought about cancelling it – but only for some hours and yesterday they declared that the whole thing will take place as planned. Commerce strikes once again <.<
I think this is VERY irresponsible towards the Japanese community and all the visitors who plan to travel there. We have a f**ing pandemia out there – no matter how “mild” the swine flu is over here (gladly no deaths so far in Germany). But you can’t be sure that everyone who bears the risk of having the swine flu is under quarantine now. Who can guarantee that they found everyone? There might still be infected persons outside on the streets, not knowing about the infection. Keep in mind that the incubation time is up to 5 days, damn it! People underestimate the swine flu, many even accuse the media of spreading scare stories. Others say the swine flu and the “hysteria” is something “invented” by the pharmaceutical companies in order to earn money selling Tamiflu etc. Now, who’s the paranoid there?!
Wake up people! The whole thing might seem “harmless” right now but a virus can mutate! It happened on the past and I want to hear those naïve people who say it’s nothing when they are infected themselves!

And I think the argument “There are more people dying because of the normal flu!” doesn’t count here! The people who die from the seasonal flu are mostly old people or babies because they have a weaker immune system and/or other infections so they cannot fight the flu. But the swine flu hits people of every age – it’s more aggressive even if it doesn’t kill as many people at the moment. But that might change soon enough.
I’m convinced that the WHO had their reasons to declare level 6. No one really knows about the potential that A/H1N1 bears!

Wake up people and stop downplaying the whole thing!!
The swine flu is dangerous, no matter what.

Call me a paranoid now, but I won’t risk my life so easily.

I planned to visit Düsseldorf on Saturday and hell – I really looked forward to it! We already had the train tickets but right now I don’t care on the wasted 10€ for a damn ticked. I cancelled the trip – I prefer to stay healthy and not to spread the disease even more because of my carelessness.

When will all those people realize that visiting a mass-meeting in a city where the most new infections occurred in the last 72 hours is the WRONG thing to do right now?

My two cents on this. Think about it.