SWINE FLU PANDEMIC? Mx, NY, TX, KS...

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
On one hand I agree...it's probably not much worse than the regular flu. However, my main concern is for my family...my mom gets the flu shot every year because she has severe asthma and a weak immune system...the flu could kill her. The flu shot she got will not protect her from this strain. Several people in my family have either auto-immune issues, asthma, cancer, etc. This flu has the possibility of causing a lot of problems for a lot of people until we can get a vaccine for it.

I am kinda in the same boat. My youngest son has severe asthma and almost died from the flu 2 years ago. The thought of ANY new strain of flu terrifies me because of him. On the other hand, I have been sick for about 2 weeks now....just getting better. All the symptoms of flu and most likely viral pneumonia. Didn't see a doc. Why? What can they do anyway? So if I get it, I'll probably be one to die because I tend to self medicate....robitussin, musinex, motrin, etc. (myself, not the kids) unless I feel it is bacterial.

 

[pdsavage]

the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.
[...]
Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.

No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.

http://www.qando.net/?p=2309

 

[turney31]

Well the United States now has its first death from swine flu, a 23 mo. old child, in Texas.

 

[CoopCrazy]

Its in INdiana now too.. They had it on the radio on my way to work...

 

[Rosalind]

I think it's more likely that the people who die will be the following:

-People in nursing homes
-ICU patients
-Anyone attending school (including daycares and universities, as well as teachers and professors)

Simply because in those situations, people are crowded together and there's always at least a few people with crummy immune systems. And in those situations, no one seems to have the sense to keep sick people excluded. I've seen plenty of parents bring their tiny children into ICUs so they can visit poor old great-grandma before she dies, even when the child is feverish, dribbling phlegm on every available surface, and crying like an air-raid siren from being so sickly and miserable. Then the whole ICU comes down with whatever Junior picked up at daycare, only because people in the ICU are, you know, not healthy to begin with, they all die. I've seen nursing homes where the majority of employees had no sick days and had to come to work sick--and spread their illness around to all the residents, killing some. And there's always plenty of college students eating crummy cafeteria food, partying, not sleeping, doing drugs and getting sick, then spreading their germs around the whole dormitory.

With respect to the uninsured, I don't think that more of them will necessarily die, but I DO think that they will enable the germ to circulate a LOT longer in the population than it would otherwise. They won't be able to get treatment when they are sick, and then once a vaccine is developed they won't have access to that either. Unvaccinated people create natural disease reservoirs, so that a disease which is originally an epidemic, or even a pandemic, ends up becoming endemic to the population and a constant battle.

 

[baldie]

Quote:
I saw this on the news this morning!! Sooo sad!

 

[CoopCrazy]

Wow You would think with our advanced health care system that we wouldnt be having ANY deaths.. That so sad..

 

[Hobbley_Farm]

Quote:
On one hand I agree...it's probably not much worse than the regular flu. However, my main concern is for my family...my mom gets the flu shot every year because she has severe asthma and a weak immune system...the flu could kill her. The flu shot she got will not protect her from this strain. Several people in my family have either auto-immune issues, asthma, cancer, etc. This flu has the possibility of causing a lot of problems for a lot of people until we can get a vaccine for it.

I am kinda in the same boat. My youngest son has severe asthma and almost died from the flu 2 years ago. The thought of ANY new strain of flu terrifies me because of him. On the other hand, I have been sick for about 2 weeks now....just getting better. All the symptoms of flu and most likely viral pneumonia. Didn't see a doc. Why? What can they do anyway? So if I get it, I'll probably be one to die because I tend to self medicate....robitussin, musinex, motrin, etc. (myself, not the kids) unless I feel it is bacterial.

The doc and prescribe tamiflu. That also seems to be a helpful drug against this NEW flu bug.

 

[HennysMom]

Quote:
What do we do until we find that magical existence? I think you'll see universal health coverage in this country. It's coming weather you want it or not. Right no wit's just a matter of single payer or not. Now that Spectre has switched sides the dems will have a 60% majority when Franken gets seated.

And how do they propose to pay for all of it?

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

Amen Mahonri - amen.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I'm quite tired of hearing about it period. The news, the news papers, websites, the radio, BYC.... makes me just want to kill a pig for the fun of it.