H1N1
"Has swine flu burned out?"
After a week of furious news coverage that touched on everything from immigration to Creationism to ambient electronic music, it seems as though the worst of the swine flu outbreak is over. Mexico has reopened its schools and places of public assembly, the Queens, NY, high school that renowned as the epicenter of the disease in NYC is back in business, and I just ate three pounds of bacon without feeling any kind of fear (except, of course, for the judgment of Hashem).
Conversely, the virus continues to pop up in new places, and the World Health Organization may well declare the virus to have reached pandemic level sometime this week. Is the worst behind us? Or will swine flu continue to be a problem throughout the summer?
The prop will pay out POP$100 if the number of reported swine flu infections in the US does not pass 500 before May 30th, 2009. The can be checked at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/index.html.
Related Links:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-05-voa44.cfm
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/06/swine.flu.main/index.html
http://bouncewith.me.uk/europe/8027043.htm
138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?
from New York, New York
bump
Ummmmm.....
Didn't the last swine flu prop pay off because we passed 500 U.S. cases? Maybe you have some other number in mind and typed in "500" by mistake.
As of 11AM today, the CDC has the U.S. total at 642.
Okay, I clicked on your W.H.O. link, and they list the U.S. has having just over 400 cases. Does the W.H.O. have a separate way of counting infected patients than the CDC, or is the CDC getting false positives? And if they are false positives, why did the first swine flu prop pay out?
Confusing.
How is this prop diffrent from the one that just delisted?
Do you mean 500 NEW cases? for a total of 1000?
I've been told that the 1918 outbreak was mild at first, in the spring, Disappeared during the summer, Then came back full-blast in August.
Todays flu looks like it might follow the same patern.
Perhaps this prop:
Will swine flu H1N1 return in Aug 2009 causing xxx new cases between Aug 1 and Aug 31, 2009?
That link says "The United States has reported 642 laboratory confirmed human cases" as of today so this prop has to be changed to more than 500
do you mean that the number of active cases does not drop below the 500 mark?..... just saying that if they don't die they have to get well and if they get well the number of cases should drop right?