Yeah, but no one is talking about it in that context. I didn’t see the quote in my comment talking about how the media is handling it and whatnot. So far, everyone I’ve seen using this argument has only talked about transmission. Condoms and masks is the topic (check Miss Owned’s comment that I quoted), not omg, the news is blowing this out of proportion.
While I’m no expert on it (but I’m learning about epidemiology), I question the arguments presented by some of these people. I mean, what knowledge do they have of the subject besides what they read on wikipedia?
There’s a huge and obvious difference in transmission in the two diseases. Why people would be more inclined to take precautions against the flu, e.g. wearing masks, is understandable since they’re not having risky, unsafe sex — they’re going about their daily activities. You’ll be shedding the virus even when you’re not showing symptoms and you can pick it up doing whatever (meaning you could be leaving the virus on stuff and infecting other people when you haven’t displayed any symptoms yet). With AIDS, it has to be transmitted via exchange of bodily fluids. And while common sense does come into play with both viruses, well, it seems that common sense is leading [some] people to be more hygienic and taking extra precautions when it comes to interaction with other people (though they should be doing this even when there isn’t a possible pandemic). It’s hard to say if common sense really exists in people who have AIDS (excluding babies born with it, people who were raped, etc.) because after like 20 years of education on prevention, people still aren’t using condoms and sometimes it’s for stupid *edited* like getting caught up in the heat of the moment, it’s awkward to stop to put on a condom, it feels better without a condom, I didn’t have one at the time, etc. I don’t see why people should be complaining about people using masks and whining about condoms for safe sex. What do you want to be done? The information is out there. But look at how it’s being used (or how it isn’t). Some people know that they can get the flu a lot easier than AIDS cuz they could just touch the doorknob that an infected person touched earlier, and some people choose to have sex without condoms.
By the way, to the part where you called it a “real pandemic,” pandemic doesn’t mean that it’s spread really fast or it’s deadly; it means disease that is widespread. And as far as I know, they said it was a possible pandemic. If everyone thinks pandemic means the same as what you think it is, no wonder everyone’s whining about the same *edited*.
The media may be giving the virus more coverage than it needs (I have no comment on this as of yet), but some of the rants I’ve come across about the flu are pretty ridiculous, the AIDS one in particular.