Swine Flu Season
[Guest post by DRJ]
The President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology warns the swine flu could infect 30-50% of the population, hospitalize 1.8M and kill 30-90K Americans.
The CDC’s information page notes the swine flu does not seem to target as many people over age 64 as the seasonal flu. However, other populations that are traditionally sensitive to the seasonal flu also seem at risk to the swine flu, including people with “asthma, diabetes, suppressed immune systems, heart disease, kidney disease, neurocognitive and neuromuscular disorders and pregnancy.”
What should you do to avoid catching or spreading the swine flu? According to the CDC:
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
* Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
* If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.
The CDC link lists guidelines for when adults and children should seek emergent care. It also recommends not to attend “swine flu parties”:
“Swine flu parties” are gatherings during which people have close contact with a person who has novel H1N1 flu in order to become infected with the virus. The intent of these parties is for a person to become infected with what for many people has been a mild disease, in the hope of having natural immunity novel H1N1 flu virus that might circulate later and cause more severe disease.
A vaccine may be available in late October.
— DRJ
John Holdren heads up the Office of Science and Technology Policy. I would have thought that wacko would have enjoyed spreading some swine flu misery to thin the human herd in order to save the earth, rather than issuing warnings.
daleyrocks (718861) — 8/24/2009 @ 10:48 pmIf you have flu-like symptoms and actually have a job with “no holds barred” attendance policies, please show up to work and infect your co-workers. Remember, YOU are not indispensable. You can be easily replaced by a lower-cost worker with a 50-cent ad in the local paper. But by all means, don’t let the threat of job-loss interfere with your irrational fear of causing greater damage from the pandemic-which-is-not-pandemical.
Sorry, CDC et al have been co-opted by “the powers that be.”
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 8/24/2009 @ 10:51 pmI hate the power of suggestion. All I had to do is read this post and suddenly I start to think that my throat is scratchy and my forehead a little warm. It’s going to be a long winter.
JVW (d1215a) — 8/24/2009 @ 11:41 pm“Winter” is a four-letter word.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 8/24/2009 @ 11:46 pmBeware the betterment of society by the “I PAT” formulation. That formula is their religion and the basis of all of their policy.
j curtis (baef6f) — 8/25/2009 @ 12:07 ammy advice to you is to start drinking heavily….
after all, ethanol is a disinfectant, and if you keep a steady state in your body, the virus won’t stand a chance.
and you should listen to me, because i’m pre-med. %-)
Bluto (fb8750) — 8/25/2009 @ 12:28 amAs an Aussie living in Australia’s swine flu capital – Melbourne – can I make a comment here? My whole family (husband, two small children and myself) all got swine flu (we were amongst the first and got full tests done and were quarantined for two weeks).
This flu was no worse than a regular winter flu. Within my family, my four year old was the worst hit. And by badly hit, I mean he had one night of a 39 degree temperature (102) and he spent the better part of a week lounging on the couch with not a great deal of energy. My two year old had one day of being cranky and snotty. My husband was unwell for around three days. Me, I was up and about within a week.
Sure, the flu may mutate etc but, from personal experience, I have experienced worse illness than swine flu. We were given tamiflu but didn’t take it (we wanted to let our natural immunity do it’s job, and it did).
So, yes, be careful and try not to get it. But in my experience, it was comparable to other winter flu experiences – maybe somewhat milder.
JaneS (fb7516) — 8/25/2009 @ 12:35 amRabbit Season!
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 8/25/2009 @ 1:22 amDuck Season!!!
KB (6118d2) — 8/25/2009 @ 4:02 amYa gotta love the classics…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 8/25/2009 @ 4:28 amI’ve been circumcised against swine flu I thought. Maybe we should start over from the beginning.
happyfeet (6b707a) — 8/25/2009 @ 5:08 amThis flu will probably be worst in young people with fewer exposures to other strains over the years. When I was in college, the “Hong Kong flu” came through and everybody in my fraternity house spent a week in bed. That may have been the same strain. Those over 65 who are in poor health are also at risk.
Mike K (2cf494) — 8/25/2009 @ 5:38 amI’m still waiting for people to realize that the NORMAL flu kills more people than Swine Flu…
Scott Jacobs (445f98) — 8/25/2009 @ 5:53 amGMTA!…..
if you go to a party make sure you wear a toga, so you have plenty of ’tissue’ area in case you start sneezing.
curing the sniffles is easy though: buy your coke from a better dealer next time. %-)
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 8/25/2009 @ 6:32 amBut that’s only if John Holdren decides to slack off at the last minute……..
Techie (482700) — 8/25/2009 @ 6:34 amI vividly recall undergoing two nasty experiences with the Taiwanese flu in the mid – 80’s; in bed for almost a week with 103 – degree temps. My GP was one of those “if it’s not killing you, don’t come in to see me” docs – but in the end, he was absolutely correct. My body had to get rid of that flu strain naturally, unless it really got out of control. Wonder how many GP’s would say that these days?
Dmac (e6d1c2) — 8/25/2009 @ 7:05 amshould seek emergent care
I think people should seek “emergency” care–emergent care is for those expected to die….
Robert Bell (9b1fdd) — 8/25/2009 @ 7:51 amPundita has been doing a bunch of research and writing about swine flu. Her take is that CDC (and WHO) put a whole lot of faith in the vaccine (which is running behind schedule and will not get much testing before it’s rolled out) and neglected the other approaches.
China kept the flu at bay for an additional month by monitoring passenger’s temps at airports and setting up stringent (draconian?) quarantine measures. Apparently H1N1 spread through air travel a lot more than other strains, but the CDC and WHO protocols were developed in the days of sea travel and not seriously updated since.
I’m glad I can avoid the big city for a week or two at a time. Thought of the day: is a major swine flu outbreak one of those crises not allowed to go to waste?
Red County Pete (3d6e5b) — 8/25/2009 @ 7:53 amIt’s interesting to note the tone here . None of the information from the CDC is anything other than a recommendation. Yet the attitude from conservatives is that it’s some kind of declaration of martial law.
BTW, some people – like my wife – need to be ‘concerned’ about H1N1 flu because their immune systems are compromised.
JEA (53fe4f) — 8/25/2009 @ 8:08 amBeing that Holdren, is known to be a nut, how much truth should we put into his prognosis; there does not seem to be that much urgency considering it all, then again what his target for stable populations, back in 1973; 280, 240 million
narciso (996c34) — 8/25/2009 @ 8:30 amRemember when bird flu hit in 2004 and it was all Bush’s fault that 200 Million doses of vaccine didn’t magically fall from the sky into the nation’s public health departments?
When the CDC and Co. fall far short of their target again, who’ll be at fault now? Surely, not the Lightworker?
Techie (482700) — 8/25/2009 @ 11:27 amJEA, not everyone commenting here is a conservative, and liberal blogs talking about this are also concerned, and I don’t see much discussion here that treats the CDC’s comments as anything worthy of panic.
Most of the comments here are showing common sense and calmness. People are concerned with disease, but they are showing normal individualism here. That you take this to be an example of some fundamental weakness in conservatism shows that you have some fundamental weakness in your mind.
Juan (bd4b30) — 8/25/2009 @ 2:42 pmHyperbole, thy name is progressivism!
Seriously, JEA, I hope that all of this is overworry about the NewFlu. My fingers are crossed that your spouse will be fine. I mean that sincerely, bitter religious racist and intolerant wingnut clinger that I am.
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 8/25/2009 @ 3:07 pmThank you very much. I say that as a leftist, tree-hugging socialist.
JEA (1eb0e1) — 8/26/2009 @ 4:39 amKeep a bottle of alcohol based no-water hand cleaner in your pocket and use it often after touching doorknobs, public phones, etc.
The killer flu of 1918 first presented as a minor blip on the screen, then came back next flu season with a vengeance. I would not panic, but I would not be cavalier, either.
For years now hospitals have tried to run as close to full capacity as possible to maximize income:costs. I am very concerned that a significant outbreak of infectious illness (or chemical exposure) would put a severe stress at best on hospital capacity, even with a lot of elective surgeries, etc., being canceled.
The suggestion against “swine flu parties”, for those unaware, harkens back to the day when moms had “chicken pox parties”. Since chicken pox is generally a milder illness the younger one gets it, it made sense to make sure your child was exposed young, sort of a jump start on the idea of vaccinating for it.
All that said, I am concerned about people in office who “look for a crisis to make something happen that you could never do otherwise”.
MD in Philly (9fa3fb) — 8/27/2009 @ 5:28 pmThank you for posting this. I certainly think that anyone who is immune-suppressed or has asthma, diabetes, etc. should get the vaccine coming out. But it’s still a controversial issue. Many argue-including nurses, doctors and other medical professionals-that the vaccine is not yet ready and poses threats to those who take it.
So, it’s probably wise to weigh the benefits and risks. If someone is healthy and not likely to encounter the H1N1 virus, maybe he or she should wait until a better vaccine is available. Of course, that does mean waiting even after the flu is back. I watched an interesting video on this at newsy.com. It shows different peoples’ opinions and why this upcoming vaccine could pose some concerns:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/h1n1_vaccine_needed_but_not_ready
Katie (c6f9e9) — 8/28/2009 @ 12:24 pmthe H1N1 or Swine Flu Virus is very scary at first but now it is well controlled by vaccines and prevention by avoiding going into places with incidence of swine flu.
Acne Treatments Site (4b14e8) — 9/7/2009 @ 3:16 amOh, Acne Treatments Site! You’re my favorite commenter!
Patterico (cc3b34) — 9/7/2009 @ 4:00 am