Attendees with Symptoms Urged to “Call Your Doctor”
If you attended the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle over the Labor Day weekend, you need to read this and pay attention.
Back in April, fears of spreading the swine flu, or H1N1, had not necessarily changed plans for this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it did impact the attendance of some big names. Nothing came of those fears.
Now, it appears those H1N1 concerns of yesterday have been confirmed today in the worst way–at PAX, a venue attended by tens of thousands, including members of gaming companies, the media, and the general public alike.
Several cases have been confirmed today on Penny Arcade’s website, with more probable. An exact number of cases cannot be hammered down, but the flight list of those infected, posted yesterday and updated today, indicates that the virus may have incubated and spread right on the show floor. It is our understanding that the U.S. Department of Public Health is assisting in this matter.
It is a near nightmare scenario for PAX organizers and Penny Arcade founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, who will have their regular work of offering web comics interrupted by this outbreak. Bill Amend of FoxTrot fame handled today’s strip.
Sega and Nintendo were among the gaming companies who were in attendance at this year’s PAX. While no big names from either company showed up, there is potential that representatives on hand from both were exposed to the virus.
If you attended PAX last weekend, and you feel symptoms such as fever, coughing, sore throat, chilla, and fatigue, you are being urged by Penny Arcade and its staff to see a doctor immediately. You may also want to have a look at the affected flight lists below, updated as of this publication. These are the flights and trains taken by those confirmed infected with H1N1. We will follow developments on this unfortunate matter–it could get very ugly.
Flight List for those with Confirmed Cases:
Departed Sunday:
Alaska Airlines #664, Seattle to Dallas, Departed Sunday Night
JetBlue #498, Seattle to Boston, Departed Sunday Night
United #958, Seattle to Chicago, Departed Sunday MorningDeparted Monday:
Alaska Airline #12, Seattle to Boston, Departed Monday Morning
American Airlines #1414, Seattle to St. Louis, Departed Sunday Afternoon
American Airlines #1162, St. Louis to Chicago
Delta #1050, Seattle to Atlanta, Departed Monday Morning
Delta #1058, Seattle to Atlanta, Departed Monday Afternoon
Frontier #432, Seattle to Denver, Departed Monday Morning
Horizon #2475, Seattle to Santa Rosa, Departed Monday Afternoon
JetBlue #176, Seattle to New York, Departed Monday Morning
Northwest #154, Seattle to Minneapolis, Departed Monday Super Early morning
Southwest #1221, Seattle to Salt Lake City, Departed Monday Night
United #356, Seattle to Denver, Departed Monday Afternoon
United #416, Denver to Tulsa, Departed Monday Night
United #505, Denver to Albuquerque, Departed Monday Night
US Airways #685, Seattle to Phoenix, Departed Monday Morning
US Airways #156, Phoenix to St. LouisDeparted Tuesday:
Frontier #432, Seattle to Denver, Departed Tuesday Morning
Virgin #755, Seattle to San Francisco, Departed Tuesday AfternoonTrain List for those with Confirmed Cases:
Amtrak Coastal Starlight #11, Seattle to Los Angeles, Departed Monday Morning
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Swine flu is hardly any worse than regular flu, anyway, so I don’t see what the big deal about it is. The media has taken the whole thing way out of proportion. There’s far worse things out there that are far more prominent than “swine flu.”
@UltimaHedgie
I’ve told the exact same thing to my parents and friends and they still think that’s it’s worse then AIDS. Ok lets not go over board -.-. But they make such a big deal about it…
Watch out for Weegee.
What’s that Lassie? Swine Flu doesn’t kill anyone except toddlers and people in 3rd world country with no health care, and has the exact same symptoms as the regular flu, and isn’t that much worse at all?
*countries -.-’
Swine flu is like a normal. Flu, only people with bad immune system will get really ill and die.
Only 2 have died in Sweden and they think that something around 8 people will die. We have good hostpitals and so on here in Sweden on moste places.
So no worry here.