I'm curious because, well, I have it. And am supposed to be in quarantine for a while as a result.

It's interesting though because I live in a university town, where a highly contagious flu is bound to spread like wildfire. Currently the uni clinic has stopped doing lab tests on every person with the symptoms, so numbers are hard to come by, but a month ago the official number was 500. Now I've heard from an unofficial source (spouse of medical person) that we've had 7,000-8,000 cases. That's insane! The campus is big, but still, it's roughly 1 in 6.

At this point I have to question how much sense it makes to keep quarantining people - surely virtually everyone has been exposed at this point? If medically informed people can elucidate this, I'm really curious.

Also, what about walking my pup? Is that okay as long as I don't talk to people?

In any case, it seems our worst fears have been pretty unfounded, because even with those high numbers, no one has died here. (yay!) I think the biggest effect will be an astronomical cost to the university, which is honestly doing its damnedest to avoid catastrophe. I went to the special flu clinic today, and though I had to wait a really long time (two hours), the doctor was super nice, and they gave me free Sudafed, cough syrup, an anti-nausea prescription med, and an inhaler. Sometimes it's great to be a student. No way I could have afforded all that on my own.

Okay, more organized survey-like bit:

1. Have you had swine flu? What was it like for you? (Symptoms, duration.)

2. Do you know anyone who has?

3. Is your local community being affected? What measures are they taking now?

4. Have you ever been quarantined for any reason? What was it? How did you amuse yourself in the meantime?

5. Are you nervous about swine flu, or do you still think it's been overblown?