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How come nobody gets hysterical over the flu in December?
By adamg on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 1:02pm
Mike the Mad Biologist compares the hysteria over swine flu with our ho-hum reaction to boring old regular flu, which kills 36,000 people a year:
... That's double HIV/AIDS deaths. But nobody gets paranoid about handwashing (WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!!). There's no serious awareness of 'coughing' hygiene. It's just shrugged off, even though a successful vaccination strategy would save tens of thousands of lives. Clearly, nobody cares about these deaths: if the public as a whole did care, vaccination would be a sacrament.
But suddenly TEH SWINEY FLOO emerges and suddenly everybody becomes a public health maven. I don't mean to downplay the potential seriousness of this particular influenza, but, so far, it's in roughly the same mortality ballpark as most other influenzas. There needs to be vigilance, but, if this influenza burns out (or even if it doesn't), we'll still have to deal with the seasonal influenza pandemic (which is what it should be called). ...
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Comments
335,349,658 dead
So far, the total number of deaths is far lower than the seasonal flu.
Percentage-wise, the mortality rate of this H1N1 virus could be a lot higher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_pandemic#Variable...
Multiply the world population (6,706,993,152) by just five percent and you're looking at 335,349,658 dead.
I'm on it!
The current swine flu outbreak is the greatest health threat facing us, today. That's why I've created a facebook page specifically targeted toward the one, easiest, thing you can do to keep from being infected.
WASH YOUR HANDS
Another important site for your armementarium
Do I Have Pig Flu?
Only americans gets fooled
Only americans gets fooled into getting a flu vaccination every year.
"Hello good, sir, would you mind paying $50 to get a shot of something that may have no effect, as you could get the flu anyway?"
Some of us still have health insurance
And don't have to pay anything for a flu shot.
I realize the shot's not perfect, but in the years I've gotten it (darn asthma), I've never come down with the flu. Roughly 40 colds a winter, yes, but not the flu.
Not knocking it
But if anecdotal evidence is all it takes, I've had the flu only once in my entire life...and I've never been vaccinated. Also, I'm not dead yet. I got better!
It's fine by me if others get it, but it's not quite to the same utility as an MMR or anything yet. Maybe one day, and then I'll get it.
Beats the alternative
I have health insurance AND my company reimburses us for getting the shot if not covered. And I would pay out of my own pocket for the shot if I had to.
"Hello good sir, would you mind paying $50 each year to prevent a week of feeling like you had been beaten with a bag of hammers? And that the act of getting dressed would wipe you out for the day? Not to mention the potential barfing, etc."
You betcha.
The one year I skipped it, hubby, then 3y.o., and I caught a nasty case each within 12 hours of the last victim. We were so sick, I was afraid we'd be unable to care for the kid (who of course recovered first and wanted to play instead of nap). After that experience, even hubby who has a needle phobia, mans up and takes one in the arm for the team.
Also note, less normal flu going around reduces the opportunities for animal-borne strains to meet up with their human-borne cousins in a human host and recombine into a pandemic flavor.
I've never got the vaccine -
I've never got the vaccine - I used to be completley and utterly terrified of needles - but I probably should, seeing as I come down with it every year. Actually, the only year I didn't was when I was out of the country during flu season.
Vaccine
The vaccine was for the seasonal flu. The Swine Flu is something else. Right now they don't have a vaccine for it.
I know that. I meant I
I know that. I meant I never was vaccinated for the seasonal flu, which I do come down with every year. I honestly don't think the swine flu, however, merits the "omfg wtf pandemic" attention it's getting, because more people get the plain ol' flu each year and more people die from said plain ol' flu each year.
Heh!
The seasonal flus not withstanding, first it's the Bird Flu, now the Swine Flu. What next? (lol)
The health freaks I know
The health freaks I know yell at me to wash my hands during flu season, I havent been able to go a day without having an extra dose of hand sanitizer pushed on me by an health freak co worker or client.
People are afraid of the unknown, and this is unknown. Also there is talk that the overall death rate may be pretty high (although this may not be true...) If it does spread, and there is not resistence to it, and it mutates, and it has a high death rate then we have some issues on our hands and that 36,000 will seem small. I also think the big concern in Mexico was the deaths of people between 16 and 45, a subset of the population that is not normally killed by the flu due to their enhanced immune systems.