Supposedly there is a lot of flu going on up here. We need to remember that the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is a huge area. For those of you who are not familiar with the area it might help if you pulled out a map of Texas. To the west starting with Weatherford to Terrill in the east is all town. Same thing with Cleburne in the south to Denton in the north. I need to see if I can find the total of population of this area.
I LIVE in the extended DFW metroplex area. All our major TV network outlets are DFW based. Very well acquainted with where Dallas, Fort Worth and various other towns are in relation to where I live. I watch the news, I read the news about various places in the area, and I DO leave our wonderful, semi-secluded house and go to Dallas shopping quite frequently.
Hence, why my comment on never seeing people vomiting en masse' in public before. I spend enough time there ( or have until recently) to know that it's not a city of extreme debauchery and public drunkenness on average.
As a nurse, I suspect other factors are at work in the public vomitus spewing rather than only minor illness. I suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of this is done for shock value, some is simply spitting for attention ( get yourself isolated in Presby. for that), and some of it is psychogenic in origin.
My response to the news alerts has become one of detached bemusement, as I do not think infectious diseased persons walk throughout Dallas, specifically, or the DFW metroplex in general, any more than I think Zombies walk the streets of same.
I'm from the South. I've seen entire families " fall out" (it means faint in some dialects of Southern- speak) because " Grannie" died at the age of 95 in her sleep and her descendants were told so when 20 of them showed up at the hospital, praying, swaying and generally making it difficult for us to work around them.
There are MANY cultural factors at work during perceived times of distress, and it appears that " the South" apparently extends to Dallas at this time, if not at all times.