I'm just looking at it as another illness. If I get sick, I'll go to the doctor. Not a big deal. There are other ways to keep healthy besides getting a vaccine.

Seriously... 60,000 people die per year from plain influenza in the united states, I don't get why this "swine flu" is being portrayed like the plague or something. , so far 1000 people died form "swine flu" thats 1/60 of what regular flu is doing, the real problem the media should be focusing on is Flu in general.

Seasonal influenza kills roughly 36,000 people in the US every year and accounts for over 200,000 thousand hospitalizations in the US alone.  To put that in perspective the record high year for deaths due to hand guns consisted of 14,000 (again in the US alone).  This recent strain of H1N1 is a cause for concern because the people it seems to have the biggest effect on (mortality wise) are younger people.  Also this particular strain seems to be really, really infectious.

I should probably take the swine flu more seriosuly since I work in a Pharmacy and there are many sick people that come by. But I think the fact that i've been continuously hearing about it, both the scary facts and the over-dramatisized media attention made me stop caring. I keep going back and forth on seeing its seriosuness. A lady at my work got H1N1, and the day her case was confirmed, I had spent practically my whole lunch break with her in the backroom. I didn't know she had it till a week later. Now that was a bit scary because I could have easily got it and passed it on to my family members. :\

All of the deaths that are Swine-related are happening in people with underlying medical issues such as asthma, parkinsons, emphazyma, and other respiratory and blood related illnesses. I just got the flu two days ago and the symptoms are all the same as swine AND regular flu. So which one do they treat? BOTH! They have the same sympoms and the same treatments. Bed, fluids, and limited contact.

H1N1 is the proper name for it, not "swine" flu. That moniker has hurt thousands of pork producers across the U.S.  Sure wish people would quit calling it that, but the misnomer seems as infectious as the flu itself. As the other posters have said, in otherwise healthy people it is really no worse than regular seasonal flu, except it seems to affect young people as well as elderly. The vaccine is in short supply  because the pharmaceutical companies had a hard time growing it in egg yolks, as they do other vaccines. The supply will soon catch up with the demand, although a lot could be prevented by simple healthy activities, such as coughing into your elbow, washing your hands frequently, gargling regularly with warm salt water, keeping your nose clean, drinking hot tea. All these activities will either kill the virus or work to remove it from your nasal passages before it infects you.

I'm not too worried about it. My doctor said that the only people who died from it had pre existing health issues that H1N1 clashed with. A friend of mine is getting over it now. She said it feels like the regular flu. My doctor also said people like me shouldn't worry about getting the H1N1 vaccine since I'm healthy and I don't work with the public. A friend of mine goes to the same doctor and told her to get the vaccine b/c she has severe asthma and works with the public. I probably will get the regular flu vaccine since that seems to be spreading faster around here than H1N1.

From what I have heard, the majority of deaths involving the swine flu in the US are mostly young children, the elderly, or people with already compromised immune systems. That doesn't mean that people in the lower risk groups have not died from it, but the high risk groups are the ones that seem to be taking the brunt. From all that I've read on it.

I see it as just another illness. The people who I've heard talk about actually having H1N1 have said that it is a pretty bad illness, but nothing they couldn't handle. It came on fast, and lasted for only a short while.

I'm not panicked about it and I'm not really worried enough to change my habits. Nor am I currently planning to get the vaccine. However, things may change. You never know!

But, it doesn't surprise me that New Jersey has a shortage of the vaccine. That seems to be the norm with this, they aren't giving out an adequate supply of the vaccine for people who need it or want it. That doesn't surprise me, though, the government has seemed to have made a major misstep when it came to preparing for this. First they rushed the vaccine production and trials, and now they aren't giving adequate amounts out. To me, this figures.

Good luck with everything involving this and good luck with any decisions you make about how to deal with H1N1. :)

@Strangebrain@xanga - Completely true.  The reason it's so "scary" is because it spreads so fast, not because it's generally deadly or anything.  I watched it sweep an entire building of graduate teaching assistants in less than a week.  At least 20 people caught it in that time.

The regular flu has killed over twice the amount that swine flu has, and it does that every single year. It's an intense virus, regular or H1N1, and it is a scary thing. I try to be cautious about touching germy places, and I wash my hands constantly. I am definitely worried about getting the swine flu, or the regular flu for that matter, but I never get the vaccination. I'm sure at some point, I might regret that, but I don't trust those vaccinations at all. It is something to be taken seriously though, because it's not like it's a hoax or something. Just be careful, and stay away from sick people! 

@arenfro@xanga - No, it's saying that the ones who are most VULNERABLE to severe cases, such as death, are the really young and elderly. Maybe your facts aren't the straight ones...

@arenfro@xanga - Okay, Okay! You win, Calm Down....