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The scare is on ! We've had it reported to be in a near by state Ohio now and people are more concerned than ever about catching germs from the microphones. There is no great way to santitize mics after every use, but I've been using a lame attempt to try. I have a container of antibacterial hand sanitizer that I leave out for the patrons. Well if someone expresses concern about germs on the mic which is more than usual lately I tell them to squirt a drop into their hands, wipe it around their hands and then lightly brush it over the head of the mic.

I have 2 regulars who do this before they sing. I clean the mics after each show and haven't noticed it to be a problem. It is very unassuming when done, so people don't notice it's being done. No one is offended this way and it doesn't seem to take up important singing time.

Have any of you (especially states like NY, CA, TX that have the Swine Flu) notice this new growing concern of germs on the mic?

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No, I am in NY State and do clean my equipment regularly. I just wish some singers were more health cautious, as I just noticed recently that many people seem to come out for the night with cold & flu symptoms. There hasn't seem to have been any deaths in the US as of yet, but you never know.

the deaths have all been in mexico to date by the sound of things...however a plane of school kids have just arrived back from mexico to Auckland NZ and some have symptoms so have been quaranteened...as have some of the other members of the flight and some of the family members of those showing symptoms. They are obviously taking it quite seriously at border control

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Yep the next world catastrophe is on. The world will die. When have we heard this before, AIDS, Acid Rain, SARS, Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, Global Warming, E-Coli, asteroid collision, and on and on and on. By now we should all be dead. It's the flu albeit a new strain but there are new strains every year. Some people will die but people die of various diseases every year.

We have a few cases here in Nova Scotia and you'd think we are all doomed if you listen to the media. They've caught it, quarantine them til they either succumb or get better and those who get better use their blood to obtain the vaccine. It's sad people die but the vaccine will be made. It's life.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

tis nature...these things determine survival of the fittest.
To be honest if I were an older person and looked to catch the flu...if it took me quickly then how much more preferable to go quick than to linger on deteriorating with no dignity

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

No extra worries here. I do Lysol the mics every other singer or so. It's no the mic heads, it's the bodies that folks hold that are good for passing around germs.

Whoever said there was any dignity in death is full of crap. There's no such thing.
Dying in NEVER dignified, no matter the method. It' just either quick or slow, or messy or not, but never dignified.
No, there's no dignity in death.

UUhh,,,sorry to say this, but death IS just a part of life. But the real question here is,,,swine flu,,,hey people!!! IT"S THE FLU!, it's not the end, take two aspirin and call me in the morning. Take whatever remedies you feel necessary to keep your mics sanitary, but getting the flu bug is NOT the end of the world. Paranoia is gonna get you absolutely nowhere. Most people worry more about things that never happen, than the things that actually DO happen. That's what'll make ya sick, the worry itself.

Peace out ya'll!!!
Scott

My thoughts always turn to "what is really going on right now if a flu pandemic is the big news of the day."

Some flu strains are far more deadly than more common types though. The Honk Kong flu killed millions. The Spanish flu pandemic killed hundreds of millions.

I think they're trying to figure out if this flu is in that category. In Mexico it's been killing one in ten. Here in the US it's apparently more mild and so far not deadly. But that could change.

It's those figures out of Mexico that has health officials worried. The deaths are mostly young and healthy individuals - the signature of a deadly strain.

I don't know exactly which towns the deaths are occurring in - I believe near the US border perhaps? It all comes down to hygiene; having lived in Central America, I know that the general population's sense of hygiene is pretty well nonexistent - digging around in the public dump and trash cans for food, etc. In Guatemala at least the livestock often roamed in and around the hovels these people lived in. I thought they either had to have iron constitutions or there wasn't anything really that was transmittable between animals and humans. Of course open sewage drains are what will really cause issues. So I guess the question is, are the deaths occurring in the more affluent population or in the pobres?

Based on the info they are spreading, it would appear that basic hygiene is the key - particularly washing hands often and long (sing row-row-row your boat three times thru while scrubbing top and bottom of hands, and each finger). Use soap. Cover your mouth if you cough or sneeze - and NOT with your bare hand but with your sleeve (I know, ick...) Don't go to work if you're ill. Suggest to someone who has come to work ill that they should GO HOME....

None of the confirmed cases in the US has resulted in death. We can hope that continues to be the case. And, hey, don't go to Mexico. Either the drug wars will get you or apparently now the flu will.

If you're going to try and wipe down your mics, stands, etc., use Lysol or alcohol wipes.
Since this flu is a virus, the antibacterial soaps alone will do nothing to kill it.

Love when people bring up the Spanish flu of 1918. The big difference between then and now is the advancement of medicine and vaccines. The chances of anything coming out of this is remote. We have instant communications and cooperation of various medical personnel. My problem isn't with the medical people, mine is with the media trying to scare the crap out of people.

People are even talking about biological warfare, which folks will never happen. The reason is simple, it cannot be controlled, therefore as dangerous to the country using it as it is to its enemy.

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There have been no U.S. deaths from this in years. I think there 1 or 2 in the first go round in the 70s, but none since. There HAVE been fatalities in less medically advanced areas in other countries.

Please see below for link to the U.S. Center For Disease Control. It should allay your fears a bit:


http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm

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And don't EVER spray your mics directly with lysol (or any product for that matter).

If you must spray, remove the windscreen completely, spray it...let it dry, replace it. The chemicals in the sprays will dry out and kill your mic elements fast otherwise.

The big difference between 1918 and now is that people are flying all over the place. If a particularly deadly strain of flu unexpectedly appears anywhere it can travel around the globe in just a few days.

It takes six months to develop a vaccine against a particular strain of flu. There are not nearly enough antivirals like Tamiflu stockpiled to deal with a sudden deadly outbreak. Plus, there are billions more people on the Earth than in 1918. Health professionals actually feel that we are more vulnerable to a pandemic now than back then.


Probably true. Unless we all start dying off. The law of averages...

THe question is not really about how dangerous things are, the real danger is low.

The real question is how people belive things to be dangerous. How much they watch the news, how much the govenrment "appears" to be panicing etc. If even a small number of cases pop up in the us (a few hundreds) it may kill off public gatherings.

I watched some footage on the TV yesterday where in mexico city they had a soccer game in their main stadium with NO fans in attendance. Normally it would be 10s of thousands. Many forms of optional public gathering were being discouraged (like sports).

Now will that save people? Maybe, but in a big city like Mexico City it is hard to eliminate person-person contact, all closing down big public gatherings will do is delay the rate of spread a bit. If it is really a rapidly spreading disease most people will get exposed, (and many will get sick) pretty soon, regardless of significant preventative measures.

Probably the best safety measure is warm weather which will kill off the virus rapidly when it is either in the air or on surfaces and thats why colds spread in winter. Summer is soon.

Same thing here, either it will blow over and not that many people will get exposed to the virus in the US, OR most of us will regardles of how careful we are.

On the rare chance of a real epidemic then nearly all adults will get exposed.

From a practical point of view, it might help to re-assure your singers regardless of effectiveness. I have seen some mic covers that seem popular in Japan that you can probably get. If people seem scared it might help that but for the spread of the virus, I doubt it will be worth the effort.

errr dr fred there have been over one hundred deaths in mexico due to swine flu.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

True but last week over 10,000 people died in Mexico for reasons OTHER than swine flu. Roughly 50,000 people died in the US for OTHER reasons besides swine flu last week.

Worldwide over 1 million people died last week from various causes. With numbers like that is 100 more cause for significant panic?

Sure it is bad to die ANY way, but panic about something that is a relatively minor cause of death is at this point pre-mature.

FAR more people are likely to die due to Alchohol or Cigarettes in the next year than swine flu by at least 100 fold.

Im not trying to be heartless just to put it in perspective.

A 150 deaths in a city of 9,000,000 is very small especially with the poverty and dirt (for a lack of better words) and lower medical services than we have in Canada and the US. These people were most likely part of the first wave.

Again the problem isn't with the medical personell, it's the media and their use of pandemic and other words designed to get ratings and sell papers.

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You can be strange but not a stranger