Lio by Mark Tatulli for May 14, 2009

So, the truth is revealed… A careless bump with your tush, and look what happens.

Don’t laugh, this just COULD have happened…

No, it started in Texas

Great - so we have Lio’s buns to blame.

Okay we know what is in the first jar, but I’m dreading what’s in the rest of those containers.

Hey let’s look at the allegory in Lio’s action. This can happen at any lab anywhere in the world and spark another crazy virus outbreak like oink-itis. MMmmMmMmMMMm pig slop.

How did Lio manage to get some swine in that jar?

I just had to change my avatar because of this. It is now a picture of a swine flu victim - and we know who gave it to him.

Now I’ll start by saying - everyone deserves some hits and misses – I love Lio, but this one missed the mark. Considering that many people got very sick and that some died, this one isn’t funny. One of the few that I’ve found so far on Lio though that I did not enjoy, so I’ll just pass on this one.

I agree. It’s one thing to be macabre and dark, it’s another thing to laugh at someone else’s misery.

And Lio is my favorite comic. And I know that Mark needs to push the boundaries, but this was too far.

ha! i MADE A SLIDE SHOW BOUT THAT!!!!!!

ciji3 & brennanmike511.

You two need to get a life, it’s a bleeep comic strip, either laugh at it or shut the he?? up.

If I may say, everyone has their own taste in what is funny or not, but in regards to the H1N1: at this point there have been relatively few deaths world wide attributable to H1N1, indeed one might as well go on to lambaste any cartoon that shows a traffic accident, or someone with the regular flu because both have caused more death, pain and suffering in the same time-frame.

Mexico does continue to be the likely location of the orginal outbreak as per the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a2.htm

LOL RRAMom!

I’m glad you liked it DigitalFrog, because I thought of you when I first saw this picture.

Liō! How could you?!

I predict that this cartoon strip is about to go viral!

Ciji3 and Co.; While I understand where you’re coming from, the hype about ‘swine flu’ is really just that–hype. This is flu season, and a few people always die in flu season. While this isn’t my favorite comic of his, I think it’s something that can amuse. Now–Does this mean Lio got the swine flu first?

13,000 people died of the regular flu virus this winter. That didn’t stop cartoons and sit-coms from depicting people with the flu. Was that any less “wrong”? The only reason this is such a huge issue is because of the the media frenzy. And it looks like that has run its course. This strip already feels dated to me. And I wasn’t making fun of people dying…I thought it might be humorous to show such a world-wide panic at its humble beginnings.

People overreacted to AH1N1

Mark keep up the wonderful work. I agree with you and Knight, the real problem with the H1N1 is the media. Why do we never hear about the long standing pandemic of the common cold?

Published this week in “Science”:

* while substantial uncertainty remains, clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918 but comparable with that seen in 1957… Transmissibility is therefore substantially higher than seasonal flu, and comparable with lower estimates of R0 obtained from previous influenza pandemics… The secondary attack rate of seasonal influenza ranges from 5% to 15%. Current estimates of the secondary attack rate of H1N1 range from 22% to 33%.*

All subject to big margins of error, till firmer data is inputed.

I’m not going to live in fear of H1N1, but the truth is that we really will not know till the fall flu season is underway.

BLAME IT ON LIO!

I knew it!

Nice Mark ;)

Is statistical more easy died in a car chase or in a fly accident that for the flu H1N1. The media scary people a lot for the pharmaceutic industry finances blue numbers.

Just a business like ever! ; )

Thanks, caucel, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

It started in San Diego but Doctors thought it was the regular flu than in Mexico the kid got the swine flu and like liburals stared this media frenzy about H1N1 and the only reason in mexico people got it so fast is that in lot of public places theres not a lot of cleaness and people that got offend by this comic ITS JUST A COMIC TRYING TO PUT THAT LIO THATS CRAZY MADE THE H1M1 FLU VIRES

I Love people who debate over a comic strip. Now I know I’m not the only that doesn’t have a life.

All we need is Michael Crichton’s novel lying open and the table and the image would be complete.

I don’t begrudge anyone their comments, knew mine would draw a few. I truly enjoy Lio, and have recommended it to many others and will continue to do so. Just didn’t enjoy this particular one – too close to reality and I sort of prefer the fantasy elements.

did like jestrfyl’s comment - Jestrfyl says:

All we need is Michael Crichton’s novel lying open and the table and the image would be complete.

Fab3 posted The Science Magazine excerpt: good catch. And it is true that thousands die from ordinary flu each year. However …

“clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918” The 1918 flu had three occurrences. The second wave was the worldwide killer.

Charlie wrote: “H1N1 kills mostly younger people, and leaves alone people over 30.” Not quite. Ordinary flu kills mostly those with weak or underdeveloped respiratory systems: The elderly and infants, as expected. The 1918 pandemic attacked many but killed more of those in the “prime of life” group- like ours now.

Good news: In 1918 much of viral science was in its infancy; in fact, that pandemic spurred much of the biological science we take for granted today. Bad news: Today’s medical folks are more worried about a repeat of 1918 because the world is so much smaller; the medicine may be better but will still lag behind the flu’s ability to move. As Science said, “Transmissibility is therefore substantially higher than seasonal flu”; cf. secondary attack rate comparison.

The significant financial cost has been covered quite well in the press IMO: billions of USD so far. This, in a world that is already fighting several military wars on several fronts AND dealing with a 1933-manqué “recession” AND where a large continent is losing a medical war with HIV/AIDS … and like that.

There is some illustrative dark humor involved with the 1918 second wave: Soon there weren’t enough healthy people in many areas to take care of the sick. Soon after, there weren’t enough living to bury the dead.

And there is another exacerbating factor, in operation continuously before and since 1918. “Crosby [below] writes: ‘All the physicians of 1918 were participants in the greatest failure of medical science in the twentieth century or, if absolute numbers of dead are the measure, of all time.’ Lest the blame be placed entirely on the medical profession, Barry [below] makes this point: ‘Back then scientists fully comprehended the threat’s magnitude, knew how to cure many secondary bacterial pneumonias, and gave public-health advice that would have saved tens of thousands of American lives. Politicians ignored that advice.’” That deadly parlay is from an Awake magazine article of 2005, “The Worst Plague in History”

References: The Great Influenza, John M. Barry, Viking 2004 America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, Alfred W. Crosby, Cambridge U. Press, 1989

Like Ciji3, I plotz over Liō. But also like Ciji3, I didn’t laugh at this one. And if the second wave of flu is like 1918’s, a similar strip is likely to be censored by Gov’t. (Look it up.)

Wash them hands, folks. Regards, Doug

Lighten up noprem…and stop writing so much…you’re boring us with your “knowledge.”

What’s H1N1?