Swine Flu - Statistics

[Chico]

There is so much hype about levels of swine flu in the UK.  You would believe that the UK was a hotbed of infection and that France is miraculously unaffected.  Well, at last the WHO are pushing for some meaningful statistics which make comparison relevant.  Here are some words I have lifted from a Spanish News article published today.

"According to the Ministry, last week there was a rate of 32.89 cases

per 100,000 inhabitants [in Spain], which “is lower than estimates in other

countries, such as Belgium (73 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), the

United Kingdom (48.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) and France (37 cases

per 100,000 inhabitants).

The Ministry of Health in Spain, had changed the method of

publishing figures on the number of individuals affected by the swine

flu virus to inform merely of the amount of cases per 100,000

inhabitants, instead of the total number of cases, following

recommendations of the World Health Organization."

Chico

[Chancer]

That cant be right, everyone knows that the UK is riddled with it and only a handfull of unfortunates have caught it in France, from the British of course!!!! [:D]

When I have time I will recount the story of my last trip to my UK home to prepare it for French invitées that were extremely nervous about swine flu, one of us did indeed catch it.

[Pierre ZFP]

Here in the Grand Duchy there have been around 130 confirmed cases (I was number 49) in a population of (I think) around 400,000 so in the right area of reported cases.  Of course, nobody knows how many others there are.

An odd statement by Min of Health was that no cases had been contracted in Luxembourg but they had all been caught from outside, mostly from UK, USA and France.  How could anyone possibly know???

I was asked if I had recently been to the UK (I had) and the Doc nodded sagely and said that was where I caught it.  I was hardly feeling in the frame of mind to argue the point but I'm pretty sure I started the symptoms before I left for the UK.

I probably infected 2 plane-loads of people too. Sorry  [:(]

 

[Cat]

I imagine that once France starts having to close classes/schools (when there are 3 flu cases in a class) we will start to see more realistic reporting of the numbers infected.

The holiday high-season will be finished by then, so they won't have to worry about scaring off tourists.

Of course they will probably say they caught it off the Brits [Www]

[Chancer]

I saw on an actualité program that they were forecasting 70% absence from the workplace come the rentrée which seemed incredible to me until my friends explained what the emergency plans were in their respective workplaces.

He an IT chief, - if anyone in the office catches it then the office is closed, all staff to be quarantined at home for 7 days, working from home where possible.

She a teacher at a lycée professionale, one reported case and the whole lycée to close for at least 7 days, the situation to be reviewed after that.

The Japanese have it right, wear a mask and carry on working.

The forecast of 70% absenteeism was made several weeks ago which shows that the powers that be knew then the true scale of the situation in France, mind you only in France could an infection rate of .0004% result in 70% of the workplace staying at home -in protest of course [6]

[Patf]

On Radio4 news this am they said it has been suggested that a swine flu test should be done as part of all post mortems. A bit gruesome - wonder what they're hoping to prove?

[PeterG]

If you receive an e-mail, perporting that you catch swine flu from eating tinned ham and pork....

 

 

Ingnore it...

 

 

 

 

It's SPAM

[5-element]

(quote)The Japanese have it right, wear a mask and carry on working.(quote)

The problem is that it should first be made into a fashion accessory, otherwise nobody in France will want to wear them.

[Will]

That's fashion accessory as in blue boiler suit, nylon pinny or wellington (sorry, rubber) boots? [;-)]

[suzy]

I think that was Mad Cow disease, to see how many people in the country may be carrying it unknowingly

[5-element]

[quote user="Will"]That's fashion accessory as in blue boiler suit, nylon pinny or wellington (sorry, rubber) boots? [;-)]

[/quote]

Well it would depend where one lives: urban or rural - and in rural, less populated areas, less need to wear a mask since less encounters.

I was also thinking of the resistance/reluctance here to do just about anything that le gouvernement asks you, or tells you, to do.

Like wearing seat-belts for instance -  something which is also for self-protection, so could be used for comparison.

Every time I travel by coach (where it is compulsory to wear seat-belts) I am one of the very few to do so. The other day, gendarmes stopped the coach and suddenly all you could hear was "clickety/clank" from all over the coach - only fear of the gendarme and of the fine will persuade people.

I wonder, if wearing a mask was to become compulsory, how much the directive would be adhered to...unless NOT wearing a mask becomes a punishable offence, severely enforced. ..Especially since wearing one of the widely available masks only protects others from your microbes, rather than protecting yourself from others. So people would have to wear a mask to protect others? Call me cynical, I just can't see it happen[:'(].

[Sprogster]

Wearing a surgical mask offers no protection whatsoever to the wearer, but some limited protection to those around them, if the wearer is infected! However, like surgeons and doctors you have to change the mask very frequently, because as soon as they get moist from your breath, the virus can pass straight through! You would need to weat a gas mask and even then most germs are passed on through touch, in that for example you touch a door handle that an infected person has used within the last five hours and then touch your face, eyes or mouth and voila, you are infected!

This Autumn is clearly not going to be much fun! 

 

[Chancer]

My friends French doctor advised the whole family to wear masks while they were in England [:D]