According to a cruise line statement two of the crew members on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas have just recovered from flu like symptoms. Right now it’s unknown whether the crew members had the H1N1 strain, but samples have been submitted to the CDC. On May 1 and May 4 and the two crew members were isolated after becoming ill.
Isolation is standard procedure onboard cruise ships when dealing with any possible flu outbreaks. Both of the individuals were treated with Tamil flu and are now fully recovered. They are no longer considered to be a source of any influenza infection. Additionally the cruise ship took other measures to reduce the risk of any possible spread influenza including pre-boarding screening of all passengers and crew and the placement of hand sanitizers throughout the ship. In other words the cruise lines know what they are doing and what early reporting there never was any real danger.
Is it just me or has the media frenzy surrounding influenza H1N1 faded almost as rapidly as it started. Just a couple of weeks ago the swine flu pandemic was the lead story in every newscast and front page news in every newspaper now any mention is barely present unless we search for it.
On Mother’s Day I was talking to my mom, and she mentioned that Allegheny County has seen its first case of the swine flu. One week prior my reaction would’ve probably been a lot different than the one she received. The truth is I was over it, this has to be the most passé pandemic in the history of pandemics. After all, we have seen our first cases here back in April. Often times when hit with a new disease or illness we often receive the worst-case scenario news first. As it stands this seems to be another one of those cases. The Media and those wackos seen on the news running errands in Hazmat suits wanted Bubonic Plague instead what they got was a case of the sniffles.
This just goes to show you what happens when the mainstream media grabs hold of the story. We all should have learned by now that it is always more interesting to scare the public than to put things in perspective. That perspective being that while the H1N1 is a very real danger it is no more life-threatening than any other flu and as long as you observe common sense and standard rules of hygiene, you should be ok.
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