Swine Flu remains a concern in Thailand, where government officials are considering a shutdown of game centers in an effort to control the spread of the illness.
GameCulture reports that Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will decide today whether such a step is warranted. Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai recently named game parlors as hotspots for the spread of Swine Flu. From the GC report:
Thailand, which has recorded more than 2200 H1N1 infections since the virus started spreading globally earlier this year, saw a spike in cases over the past weekend... Interviews with patients pointed to Bangkok's popular gaming cafes as a hub for transmission. On weekends, and particularly during holidays, Thai teenagers crowd into the cafes, where they chat and play games until the wee hours...
Comments
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
In other news, 2200 cases of the real flu have been reported this week (not really, making that number up).
A number I'm not making up though, is that approximately 36,000 deaths and over 200,000 hospitalizations happen each year from the standard flu (thanks wikipedia) in the USA alone. Meanwhile, Swine flu has had about 108,000 reported cases and only 560 deaths. So, despite the fact that Swine flu kills about 0.1% as much as the real flu, this one gets all the media attention.
Can we be over this BS already?
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Exactly what I had been thinking. Swine Flu is just a strain of the normal flu, it's no more deadly as long as you don't have other underlying medical conditions (most that have died of swine flu had other diseases/conditions as well). The only reason that swine flu could be a LITTLE bit worse is because no one has gotten it before, meaning that no one has any antibodies for it. I'm sick of the coverage of flu.
-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
With the difference being that normal flu deaths are caused by negligence (not going to see a doctor) or bad health care (exacerbating the conditions). Generally, we know how to deal with the flu, as long as people go to see good doctors.
What makes the medical community scramble every time one of these new viruses are discovered are the unknown factors. Who knows if, once they start replicating in the human body, they start mutating at an exponential rate? That would make them impossible to cure. You never know when a new virus is going to start a pandemic, so it's always better to be safe than sorry in terms of health, in my humble opinion.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
It really is ridiculous. In the time it took for there to be ~8 deaths attributed to the Swine Flu, there were ~13,000 deaths from the regular flu. In the United States alone. And that was months ago, the number has no doubt soared by now; flu is a fairly common cause of (or contributing factor to) death - even here in America.
Now, there was a legitimate cause for the scientific and medical communities to keep a close watch on the outbreak; it is suspected (though not proven, as far as I know) that the 1918 pandemic was caused by a mutated version of the swine flu.
That said, the chances of this swine flu outbreak mutating into a similar strain were abysmally low, and even those few facts were lost to a media that simply wanted to sensationalize the fear factor.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Huh, I thought this whole swine flu thing was a done deal. I guess the media here finally got tired of blabbing about it all the time.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
No. Michael Jackson Died. Now everyone is focusing on that and soon they will forget what they were talking about before hand.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
I'm sick of seeing about him too. Shouldn't spend more than a week on a dead person unless there's a real scandal or something interesting about it, not spend two weeks STRAIGHT of memorial stuff.
-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
At least it wasnt Anne Nicole Smith going about for 3 weeks.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
And when will they reopen it??? I'm thinking an anti gaming excuse. >_>
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Dude, you have no idea how bad the Swine Flu scare has spooked Asian countries. I'm talking serious airport security. If you even have so much of a sniffle they'll run you down and ask you a battery of questions on your health.
For once, I actually believe the Swine Flu reason.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
I don't remember them taking these precautions over Avian Flu, or SARS. (Remember those, they were supposed to kill us all as well.)
--------------------------------------------------
I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
They didn't.
The West did.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Since we aren't getting any word of other public venues being closed, it seems all the more sketchy.
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Well, Asia is bursting with wildlife and people so a lot of diseases get quickly transmitted there.
GameSnooper
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
To be fair, it is a bit suspect that it's only game centres that are being mentioned, certainly as far as I can see.
/b
Re: Thai Government May Close Game Parlors Over Swine Flu ...
Well, considering it's called GamePolitics, not RestaurantPolitics or MallPolitics, I think they'd only mention the gaming aspect, not all the other stuff they've closed down since the outbreak started.
---
Freedom of speech means the freedom to say ANYTHING, so long as it is the truth. This does not exclude anything that might hurt someone's feelings.