Swine Flu: Bacon's Revenge

Porco Traditore!!!!!!!

I wonder if the swine flu is kosher?

Seventh,

Actualy it isn't.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieHZRubAS3lyjn2GBiCPkXkHrXwwD97QROAG0

So whats bird flu fried chicken's revenge?

I am afraid this won't be too hilarous in another 3 or 4 weeks. The bird flu is not over yet, it simply hasn't arrived in the USA yet. It is still brewing else where.

The pig-pen is mightier than the sword:

Ham-handed vengeance that will leave you bacon for mercy.

I'm sweating, coughing, sneezing, and nearly blind. What a fool am I! I should have listened to my preacher when he told me not to touch myself.

He always said that "pulled pork" would be the death of me.

this is stupid.

Sausaged between diseases from birds and pigs, you may feel the urge to start swine-ing. Don't be a flu and try to hogwash your hands and pig out on healthy foods. Above all else, don't boar us all with your pig's eye viewpoints about this pig-demic.

I suppose that all we can hope for is that the swine flu doesn't mingle with the bird flu; that may just be the day that pigs learn to fly.

Terrible, I know, but I just couldn't resist ^.^

Gauldar - pffft! that's fantastic, thanks for the link!

Ive been drinking swine and notice they use a pork to cap it. Jesus thats bad

um, Kalel...I do believe you just got slammed by Nymori.

Chickens cry fowl as swine flu hogs world spotlight.

No, it was Cameron who slammed me.

No slam intended...maybe just a slab (of bacon).

@kalel
You got served! Now is it on?

This shirt makes me happier than a pig in %@$#!

Later,
Chrome...

I love Neatorama, but do you just make ugly shirts for every little thing that happens? The clip art and bad fonts don't need to happen. The current event ones look rushed and aren't worth the money. And while I love being funny and offensive, the swine flu is spreading every day. I really hope it doesn't come to it but if a pandemic were to occur, this would really be in bad taste.

This week will go down in history as the week when Swine Flu.

who cares, its such a sissy disease anyway, just like bird flu.

152 people have died from this.
Some of them children.

So what shall we make fun of next?

Meg, perhaps you didn't read the post.

"Moral outrage is welcome (as long as it’s funny)."

Traffic kills more people than you mention in hours yet you have no problem with it. Be funnier. use the fact that all the dead are Mexicans. Can't go wrong with dead Mexican jokes.

Only 152 sofar...? Yes Amen Eric the Red-

To meg and all the others that go chicken on this virus: Why so much fuss about this sofar potential killer?
In the meantime we humans alone in the US, but generally all over the globe kill FAR more of our own kind in traffic in traffic alone. But also because of pollution, because of stuff like violence and smoking.

Those statistics hardly reach page 3 of the papers, we read them, make some ts- ts -ts noises, we sigh and mumble words like "there goes the neighborhood...", we take another sip of coffee or tea and we move on and forget about those numbers.
Yet the moment you get out of your frontdoor you stand FAR more chance of getting killed in a traffic-accident, by random violence, by some other natural phenomenon or by slowly getting killed by pollution than you'd get caught bij some deadly virus.

And that also applies when you live in Mexico- At the same time people get killed by that virus, more people get killed in crime-related violence and by traffic accidents.

So how is that possible? What am I missing here?

"Traffic kills more people than you mention in hours yet you have no problem with it. "

Car crashes aren't a communicable virus.

Also, no one's made a "Hah hah car crash victims are TEH SUXXOR!" t-shirt.

@GQ- As far as I see it, there is virtually no communication about car crashes...!
Is that why there are also no shirts on car victims...?

So many deaths but it is deemed non-important in the greater scheme of things while at the same time the common flu under the old and the very young on yearly basis worldly still kills far more than this new Mexican flu?

No offense, but some people here are really ignorant or more so being stupid about contagious diseases that have the potential of becoming pandemics. So far, the official statistics say that MORE THAN HALF of the people infected with the Swine flu died! And that is not just the old and the weak. Healthy people. Have you been sick with the flu recently? Then you do you know how fast flu spreads. During the Spanish flu more 1 billion people were infected and 30 million died! The Black Death pandemic wiped out MORE THAN HALF the population of Europe at the time! If those things are not contained they can spread extremely quickly among populations. A pandemic at our time would be a global disaster of unprecedented scale!

"@GQ- As far as I see it, there is virtually no communication about car crashes…!
Is that why there are also no shirts on car victims…?"

I don't really know what you mean here but if you think that no one talks about deaths on roads then you're just not listening hard enough.

"So many deaths but it is deemed non-important in the greater scheme of things while at the same time the common flu under the old and the very young on yearly basis worldly still kills far more than this new Mexican flu?"

I don't know if that statistic is true but while anyone can get the regular flu, it rarely kills healthy people. ANYONE can get swine flu because no one is immune to it and it can, frankly, kill anyone who doesn't recieve the correct treatment in time. A slightly bigger deal, wouldn't you agree?

Anyone got a trough drop?

If your vegetarian, do you get the "Toflu"?

I am glad to see some commenters here are actively and correctly analyzing the threat of swine flu. I am currently obtaining a masters degree in global public health with a focus on emerging infectious diseases. Let's note a few things of important:

1. The Spanish flu originally circulated as a moderately infectious and virulent strain before mutating and killing 30 million people. The ability for the strain to attenuate is largely due to the lack of containment and surveillance of the disease.

2. I assume most of you are healthy adults. This strain of flu is more deadly to healthy adults. The over-response of the immune system in healthy adults is usually the cause of death, rather than the actual virus itself.

3. Why have prior pandemics been able to spread so quickly? Well, lets simply apply some common-knowledge to that one. No internet. A lack of global surveillance. When the media can disseminate information to a large number of people quickly and those people can take precautions, the ability for the flu to spread is reduced. Obviously this is not the sole or main reason the flu isn't a pandemic yet, but it's certain a factor.

4. Comparing car crash mortality rates and influenza mortality rates is simply ridiculous. Yes, car crashes are a major problem. Go ahead and list off every god damn probably cause of death you want and talk about how "more people die every day of disease/accident/x." The truth of this matter is, if you all found out in a few months, when this disease subsides, that a highly infectious and potentially deadly strain of flu was infecting hundred of persons in the U.S, Mexico, Europe and a host of other nations, YOU WOULD BE LIGHTING UP MESSAGE BOARDS bitching about the lack of transparency in government and media. This point is the one that irks me that post as a person working in public health. If we do EVERYTHING we can to keep you safe from disease, people act bratty and laugh at the "overreaction" to the threat. If we do nothing and a disease emerges, everyone gets angry and tells acts why we did not do our job.

The truth of the matter is, diseases are highly unpredictable. At this moment, there are thousands of epidemiologists and public health workers flying into the center of the epidemic in Mexico to track this disease and determine the best ways to contain it. I'd like to see how many of you would be willing to go with them right now. Please don't mock the efforts of the people educated to deal with these problems.

I enjoy a joke as much as the next guy, but on a serious note, living and working in Asia, I've personally known people who've died and suffered from SARS and bird flu. I understand that the threats were intangible in North America and Europe so it was easy to take lightly.

It seems the same is happening here - deaths of people in developing nations are all fun, games, and cocktail conversation until someone in the First World dies, then the health departments really start to do more than express concerns.

Also, to anyone using "body count from X is higher than Y" argument, death is death - are we so desensitized that we can get some cheap laughs from other people's grief so long as something else kills more? At least I'm glad to see the totally inappropriate post regarding deceased Mexicans gone, kudos.

That said, a punny caveat whilst maintaining my outrage: Don't be a ham and hog up the comments with boarish spam - you can just can it.

@CQ-
The Central Buro of Statistiscs in the Netherlands where I come from, states that yearly about 80.000 people get sick and about 1.000 to 2.000 persons die. Most of these people are above 65 years old.
The first month of 2009 saw on average an extra thousand deaths caused by the normal flu.

In the Netherlands, in 2008 we had 750 deaths in traffic. And we have very good trasckrecord compared to other countries in Europe where we has about 43 deaths per 1 million inhabitants. Compared: A country like the United Kingdom has about 50 and Belgium has about 101 deaths per million.

The Netherlands is a well developed country with an excellent healthcare system and a population of a little over 16 million people.
It is my estimate that there will be comparable numbers in the US if you even out the numbers. And in that case how will the numbers for that ordinary flu stack up worldwide?

At the same time, worldwide yearly there are about 12.00.000 deaths in traffic.

So again I ask- Only 152 worldwide for this new kind of flu and then all the panic...? I still don't understand.

Ah thanks aan- Now I begin to understand something:
If it is unpredictable, then there is reason to worry bigtime, but as long as the situation is predictable, we can sit back...?

um, i have really just skimmed through the comments on this one but honestly you're all a bunch of silly people. this is a serious issue, but at the same time lets not get crazy. sick people died because they don't have healthcare. there's one reported case of this swine flu in my hometown in central california, but no one is make a big deal of it are they? everyone thinks it's just in mexico but it's already crossed the border. it's not a big deal. antibiotics and oj and rest. that's what they prescribed him. and you guys are spazzing out. this thing affects the old and young the worst. so chillllll. stop arguing...and get back to making jokes. and if you don't like the jokes then go read something else.

If nothing else, at least the swine flu's allowing the people researching it to "bring home the bacon" in such times of economic instability...

*ducks away from angry comments*

Just an update, the WHO says there have only been 7 (yes, just SEVEN) confirmed swine flu deaths. Everybody just take a biig step back and chill out.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/only-7-swine-flu-deaths-not-152-says-who-20090429-aml1.html

I'm missing how Neatorama's new t-shirt is worthy of being listed on the front page - I doubt it would have made it out of the upcoming Q.

People have died, we all have the potential to die if this becomes a pandemic and huffs and puffs and blows our ... oh never mind. I'm bad at this sort of thing.

Look, folks, the potential for pandemic is serious, and no one is making light of the confirmed dead or the sick. If you can't laugh at something like this and feel the need to be overly sensitive and dour, then being on the internet is probably a bad idea. Making jokes is often the best way for people to deal with frightening things, and we are all being bombarded with reports on swine flu twenty four hours a day. It's nice to have a laugh.

This just in: Commenters go hogwild in ham-handed bid to win internet debate. As pigheaded assertions reach epidemic levels, CDC recommends afflicted herd themselves into bed, get plenty of flu-ids, take livestock of the uselessness of it all.

I just can't figure out why so many people on this thread are acting so sow-r.

This flu incites swine-chilling horror.

It doesn't matter if it was 7 or 152. (it was 152) and it doesn't matter if it isn't the biggest killer there is in the world. Anybody dying for any reason is sad, and not something to be joked about. It may not affect you yet, but that doesn't mean that other people aren't suffering because of it. By all means, make attempts at moral outrage in the hopes of being funny. But I think it's ignorant and distasteful to make jokes at the expense of those who are suffering. If you sent this shirt to a family who lost their baby or their grandmother to swine flu, or any other flu variant for that matter, I highly doubt they'd find the same misguided comedic value in it that you seem to. Everyone deserves to have a laugh and do something to negate all the scary media coverage, but really. There are so many other things you could joke about.

The best cure for swine flu is a generous application of oinkment.

Days of swine & roseola.

@Meg - You're right, it is sad regardless of the number, but it helps to have the numbers right. 8 deaths is the current number reported by the WHO.

Straight from the WHO website (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_29/en/index.html):

"As of 18:00 GMT, 29 April 2009, nine countries have officially reported 148 cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection. The United States Government has reported 91 laboratory confirmed human cases, with one death. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection including seven deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and the United Kingdom (5)."

Yes, the swine flu can be treated and does not have to be fatal. However, the reality is that a lot of people do not have healthcare, or just wouldn't believe that they had the swine flu before they had spread it. In fact, it is reported to be contagious at least two days before symptoms arise. So, I applaud the effort to err on the side of caution and make people aware. I live in Fort Worth, TX, where all schools are closed. If just one poor, or uninsured person was spared catching this and possibly dying because their child missed a few days of school, then it is worth it!

Hilarious! I know it's horrible but, damn that's funny.......... I found this

http://www.whenswinefly.com

I think I have swine flu.

Every time I cough it smells like bacon.....

hope it doesnt kill anyone and i hope no 1 gets it

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=2517604

In the United States more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and more than 20,000 people die from the flu and its complications every year. (Source: excerpt from The Flu, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID) ... In an average year, flu leads to about 20,000 deaths nationwide and many more hospitalizations. (Source: excerpt from What to Do About the Flu - Age Page - Health Information: NIA)

It's more about the hype than the actual serious nature of the flu...Not making fun of any deaths, just the hype of this particular strain. If regular flu deaths were reported on the front page every day, we'd never read about anything else. 20,000 a year for ANY flu in the U.S.A. alone would mean 5-6 front page deaths from the flu every day. Unless someone publishes a 'Flu Only' newspaper, I'm flued out~!

More than 110000 now, about 1% mortality I think!

www.swinefludeaths.co.uk says theres over 110000 now!

Interesting stuff. Did you hear that there's a new strain which is resistant to the anti-flu drugs? Tamiflu etc? Found a really good website for tracking it's progress, seems to be updated every hour or so... www.swinefludeaths.co.uk.

I survived Swine Flu just fine... I don't see what all the fuss is about! The people who died from it, well, it sucks that their immune systems were too pussy to deal with an overrated tickly throat :-p