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New York, 1:55 AM
Mon Nov 16
13 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/19/09
Also, if you watched the 60 Minutes segment, you would have seen that through all the hysteria, the mortality rate is still 1%. Not at all out of line with other flu pandemics, and as stated in the segment, not even close to the severity of the 1918 flu (which was a relative of this one). The problem is that the fall-off for people who develop complications is very steep. Meaning, if you get the opportunistic bacterial pneumonia that rides in after the flu infection, that can be very serious indeed.
But keep that mortality rate in mind when you're flipping out. 1 %. That means statistically impossible scenario that every man, woman and child in the country gets the flu, 3 million people will die. Horrible and tragic for those it effects, but hardly a societal breakdown like in The Stand. #swineflu
10/19/09
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10/19/09
Unfortunately, H1N1 kills off the young and the elderly, not the fat, resentful middle-aged Caucasian that listens to this shit. Sorry kids- Dad has a gripe against the government from what the TV told him! Ugh. #swineflu
10/19/09
10/18/09
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10/19/09
10/18/09
The swine flu just hit my in-laws. 3 kids under 6 and their mom had the highest fevers they had ever had in their lives. They were sick for 5 days and flattened by it. Sure, they are recovering now, but not everyone is. And why go through that scary hell if you don't have to? Plus, getting vaccinated means you help protect people who can't get vaccinated. Team work, people. Team work. #swineflu
10/19/09
He also mentions something about understanding that inoculation is exposure to a small amount of virus to activate the immune system. Erm, that's not exactly how vaccines work these days. Sure, that was true back when Washington was variolating his troops with pus from smallpox scabs, but vaccine science has progressed pretty far since then. When you get a vaccine, you're getting inoculated with either a killed virus (think Salk vaccine), an attenuated virus that's genetically different and poorly adapted to humans (think Sabin vaccine), or a subunit vaccine that carries only a few major antigens of the virus in an otherwise harmless viral genome (HPV vax).
As a final show of ignorance, he mentions the swine flu scare of 1976, where Ford mounted a huge response to a single case of horrible swine flu. He doesn't mention that the vaccine they rolled out was contaminated with the virus that causes Guillaune-Barre, but that's not the point he was making. Instead, he argues that the government provided a solution to a problem that didn't exist. Does he think that this swine flu isn't a problem?
Maher knows nothing about vaccines, nothing about biology or the immune system, and nothing about medicine. This is too important an issue to be subject to contrarian bullshit from know-nothings like Bill Maher who think "the science isn't settled" (as if he's in any position to judge).
10/19/09
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10/18/09
Why? #swineflu
10/18/09
10/18/09
Anyway, another factor (or theory) for why H1N1 strikes especially hard in the young adult population is that their immune systems work too well and basically goes out of control. Older people, in addition to having been exposed to similar viruses before, have reduced immune responses. Similarly, young children's immune systems have not fully developed yet, so both the very young and very old are unlikely to overreact in response to H1N1 exposure.
[scienceblogs.com] #swineflu
10/19/09
Really, what it all boils down to for me is that I'm a single and childless (i.e., no kids to worry about) 34 year old. My parents are in their 60s (so they're fine, hypothetically), and I'm an only child, so I have no siblings to worry about. Thus, it's all about me me me me me! Am I going to die? I need an answer! Ack!!!! #swineflu
10/19/09
Anyway, snark aside, I'll grant you that 15 to 50 is a pretty wide range to use for "young adults." I've also heard the term "in the primes of their lives" applied to the H1N1-susceptible population, which may be a better descriptor.
10/18/09
10/18/09
Whether or not the vaccine can kill you is apparently "up for debate", even among the anti-vaccine crowd, who I liken to the birthers and the truthers - that's about how credible they are.
Whether or not H1N1 can kill you is *not* up for debate. It can, it has, it is doing it to someone somewhere in this country right now.
Which are you going to take your chances with?
It's kind of like saying seat belts can choke you to death, so you're safer not wearing one. #swineflu
10/18/09
10/19/09
The truth is there is no possible way for there to be an accurate measure of how effective a vaccination like this one will be AND may prove as an act of futility since immunity takes months after inoculation and the flu is already spreading quickly. If H1N1 does not reach pandemic proportions, the vaccination makers will declare victory and unjustly so. If H1N1 infects many and kills enough to create a news-byte body count on the evening news, they'll blame the fact that not enough vaccine was distributed. It's the age-old snake oil salesman's routine, plain and simple.
09/24/09