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US Flu "Epidemic" Worst in Decade
Accuweather ^

Posted on 01/10/2013 7:51:01 AM PST by chessplayer

An agressive flu strain is spreading quickly across the country. Hospitals from coast to coast are being forced to divert patients from their overcrowded emergency rooms.

"I can't say it enough," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said. "Please all of everyone out there, get to the health centers where you can get you flu shot."

This winter has had the earliest and worst outbreak of deadly flu virus in a decade.

Positive cases of influenza in the U.S. rose 60 percent during the last week of December.

In the week ending on Dec. 29, 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported there were 2,961 positive influenza test results out of 9,363 specimens nationwide, or 31.6 percent. Near the Great Lakes, the hardest-hit region, reports nearly 60 percent of those who were checked tested positive for the flu.

(Excerpt) Read more at accuweather.com ...


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Got my shot Dec. 7th. Been getting one every year for the last 9-10 years. Odd thing about this years shot, though. Usually my shoulder aches for a few days after the shot. This time it hardly ached at all.
1 posted on 01/10/2013 7:51:05 AM PST by chessplayer
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To: chessplayer

From the reports of hospitals being overloaded, I have to think most are obama voters.


2 posted on 01/10/2013 7:54:13 AM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: chessplayer
I got my flu shot in October and it did NOT work. I came down with a physician confirmed case of the flu last week, and am just now getting over it. The current medical spin is that the vaccine does not necessarily guarantee that you won't get the flu, but that it will lessen the symptoms.

Whatever.

I want my $30 back.

3 posted on 01/10/2013 7:54:22 AM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: chessplayer

Got my shot in September. Remember it still takes about a week to be effective.


4 posted on 01/10/2013 7:55:13 AM PST by Perdogg (Mark Levin - It's called the Bill of Rights not Bill of Needs)
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To: chessplayer

A conspiracy nut might think that this is an effort to build support for Obamacare.


5 posted on 01/10/2013 7:55:57 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: chessplayer

I’ve never gotten the flu shot and I’ve never gotten the flu. It may have something to do with the military rebuilding my immune system when I was a kid, I don’t know. I keep my hands clean, avoid touching inanimate objects if I don’t have to and generally stay healthy. It’s worked well so far.


6 posted on 01/10/2013 7:56:50 AM PST by TheRhinelander
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To: chessplayer

10 minutes after my shot this year, I couldn’t tell I’d had one.

I suspect we are having an epidemic because they guessed wrong on the variants for this years shot.


7 posted on 01/10/2013 7:58:10 AM PST by FrogMom (Chicken Little is coming, and he's right!)
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To: Timber Rattler

The idea of vaccine protecting the public is to create a kind of firewall against infection. It doesn’t work as well for individuals, but you were immunized for a lot of infections just by having so many people immunized. So if half of the vaccines work for a particular pathogen, it works.


8 posted on 01/10/2013 7:58:22 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: chessplayer
Usually my shoulder aches for a few days after the shot. This time it hardly ached at all.
Got a flu shot in boot camp (mid 60s) that caused my arm to really hurt for a full day. I put off getting a flu shot for ten years because of that memory.
However, since the mid 70s, I've never had one that hurt.
9 posted on 01/10/2013 7:59:11 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Timber Rattler

Wasn’t there a recall or something? I remember that my pharmacy, which gives shots, stopped for a while. Maybe it was the “delivery system?” They might have been using those “airgun” things. Anyway, what I do recall was that something wasn’t effective.


10 posted on 01/10/2013 7:59:18 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Congress should ban assault flu viruses.


11 posted on 01/10/2013 8:02:24 AM PST by mbarker12474 (If thine enemy offend thee, give his childe a drum.)
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To: chessplayer

Is the flu shot they are recommending going to cover this strain? I thought I heard that the strain that is going around was not in the flu vaccine this year.


12 posted on 01/10/2013 8:02:41 AM PST by frogjerk (Obama Claus is coming to town!)
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To: freeangel

Why?


13 posted on 01/10/2013 8:05:10 AM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: chessplayer

Are we sure that this isn’t another “un-wasted crisis” trumped up by the media and massaged by Obamites?


14 posted on 01/10/2013 8:06:04 AM PST by Thorliveshere
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To: chessplayer

Media generated hysteria. Apparently the low information people out there don’t know how to cope with the flu or what is most likely just a bad cold... so off they run to the emergency rooms.

This country is doomed.


15 posted on 01/10/2013 8:07:25 AM PST by Third Person (I'm in my prime.)
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To: chessplayer

If you’re allergic to eggs, don’t get a flu shot.

That would be very, very bad.


16 posted on 01/10/2013 8:09:17 AM PST by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: Timber Rattler

I got my flu shot in October and it did NOT work. I came down with a physician confirmed case of the flu last week, and am just now getting over it. The current medical spin is that the vaccine does not necessarily guarantee that you won’t get the flu, but that it will lessen the symptoms.


No, there is no money back guarantee it will prevent you from getting it. There has NEVER been a guarantee it will prevent it. But it can still reduce the severity of it if someone gets it. That can mean the difference between surviving or dying for the elderly.


17 posted on 01/10/2013 8:09:48 AM PST by chessplayer
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To: chessplayer

The media has to get with the program. Don’t bother us with this inconsequential crap. We are saving the country from “Gun Violence”.


18 posted on 01/10/2013 8:09:53 AM PST by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: Timber Rattler

The are many strains of the flu. The medical community makes an educated guess as to which strain will infect people on a given year. Somehow I doubt you could do better.


19 posted on 01/10/2013 8:11:50 AM PST by EEGator
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To: Timber Rattler

The flu shot protects against previously known and the most prevalent strains of flu. In essence you got protection up to last year’s known threats.


20 posted on 01/10/2013 8:13:19 AM PST by pfflier
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