Reply #136: The worst case..

[Techn0Girl]

"If the 1918 scenario recurs, we don't have enough ICU ventilators to take care of everyone. "

No, the worst case is that a secret military medical experiment gets loosed upon us this Halloween and it's the Zombie Apocalypse for sure!

Which makes about as much sense as what you're implying. Comparing it to the 1918 outbreak is nonsense because it has broken out at least TWICE since then (without apocalyptic events by the way) and a good chunk of the population is already immune to it. This is why older people (like me - finally oldness is an advantage for something!) are at least partially immune to it.

Swing flu has a low death rate, lower than most influenza virus according to CDC statistics. It does spread rapidly. SO a lot of us are going to be sick with a flu for a week - and some people are going to pass away as they always unfortunately pass away from the flu. Since many older people are to some degree immune to this (having had it during the 70's or 40's outbreaks) they are probably at lessenned risk for dying. This may account for the lower death rates from H!N1 virus that we are experiencing - pur conjecture on my part however.

Hardly the Zombie apocalypse.