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Severe flu brings medicine shortages, packed ERs and a rising death toll in California
Los Angeles Times ^ | Soumya Karlamangla

Posted on 01/06/2018 8:11:57 AM PST by BenLurkin

So many people have fallen sick with influenza in California that pharmacies have run out of flu medicines, emergency rooms are packed, and the death toll is rising higher than in previous years. Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three at the same time last year.

Nationwide and in California, flu activity spiked sharply in late December and continues to grow.

The emergency room at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica typically treats about 140 patients a day, but at least one day this week had more than 200 patients — mostly because of the flu, said the ER’s medical director, Dr. Wally Ghurabi.

...

The flu season is typically worst around February, but can reach its height anytime from October to April.

Though influenza had only only killed three Californians at this time last year, it had taken 68 lives by the end of February, according to state data.

Many California doctors, however, contend that the recent surge has been unusually severe.

“Rates of influenza are even exceeding last year, and last year was one of the worst flu seasons in the last decade,” said Dr. Randy Bergen, clinical lead of the flu vaccine program for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California.

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


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: california; flu
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To: PAR35; All

“They apparently missed the mark badly with this year’s vaccine”

Back When I was operationally mandated to vaccinate I had always assumed flu vaccines were off the mark, but these number crunches tell a different story.

I’m still not convinced, but now I have the luxury of staying away from the fray during high points of most influenza outbreaks.

http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2014/12/12/flu-shot-isnt-good-match-year-ever/


21 posted on 01/06/2018 9:03:51 AM PST by Clutch Martin (Hot sauce aside, ever culture has its pancakes, just as every culture has its noodle.)
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To: BenLurkin

I’m on day 9. I visited my grandkids in California and came back to Arizona with a California flu bug that won’t let go.

Nasty state.


22 posted on 01/06/2018 9:15:03 AM PST by Not A Snowbird (A year in Arizona... and I haven't burst into flames yet.)
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To: SandyInSeattle

Hope you get well soon. Get lots of rest, water and and chicken broth.


23 posted on 01/06/2018 9:18:41 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Clutch Martin
but now I have the luxury of staying away from the fray during high points of most influenza outbreaks.

HOW???
Or, alternatively, when did you die?

24 posted on 01/06/2018 9:18:43 AM PST by publius911 (CBS: "Asking the right questions is 100% of catching sexual abusers")
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Yes

Sorry, I should have been more direct in that comment.


25 posted on 01/06/2018 9:28:07 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: BenLurkin
Part of the problem this year is their reluctance to give you the truly strong cough syrup because of all the paperwork.

The hacking cough leaves you without sleep which wears down your system which is already down.

So you cough more, which keeps you from any sort of rest and tears at your muscles and now you can not rest because you are coughing and you HURT.

26 posted on 01/06/2018 9:30:22 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Not a Romantic, not a hero worshiper and stop trying to tug my heartstrings. It tickles! (pink bow))
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To: txrefugee

Sometimes I wonder if the flu shots actually makes this worse somehow. I didn’t get a flu shot this year, but a bunch of people in my office got them. Shortly after that, I came down with something. Not too bad, but I had laryngitis and didn’t feel my best.


27 posted on 01/06/2018 9:33:20 AM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
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To: BenLurkin; 2ndreconmarine; Fitzcarraldo; Covenantor; Mother Abigail; EBH; Dog Gone; ...
‌Infectious Disease Ping- influenza (California and elsewhere)

Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three at the same time last year.
Historicly, older adults who have suppressed immune systems represented a numerical higher fatality rate, so the virulence of this influenza seems to not hold this distinction.
Nationwide and in California, flu activity spiked sharply in late December and continues to grow.
Many hospitals are restricting and limiting visitors to immediate family with no cold or flu symptoms.
The British healthcare system is similarly under extreme pressure due to influenza,
and has gone "Condition Black"- accepting no new patients, and cancelling routine surgeries.

28 posted on 01/06/2018 9:36:29 AM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: SandyInSeattle

We were just out there and before we left my daughter came down with the flu (she had a flu shot. Now, her oldest son has it. He goes to a private school and the nurse said that half the kids came back to school with the flu.


29 posted on 01/06/2018 9:44:03 AM PST by surrey
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Got 3 of my surviving grandmothers family members and she survived it as a toddler. Went back for her 100th birthday on December 15, I appear to have gotten it then, was sick pretty much since returning on 22nd (flying...uggg). Her and the parents are all vaccinated up for flu and pneumonia though.

They lived out in the mountains of Virginia/West Virginia. It is notable looking at the concentration/timeline map how the early outbreaks are all concentrated around ports and continental rail hubs and then radiates out over the next month with the difficult access areas falling last.


30 posted on 01/06/2018 9:45:59 AM PST by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: BenLurkin

If you’re sick....stay home!!


31 posted on 01/06/2018 9:47:51 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Howie66

I don’t know I’m not in Texas, I’m only in one of the tens states with secession movements.


32 posted on 01/06/2018 9:48:09 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: publius911

I agree...


33 posted on 01/06/2018 9:59:27 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: publius911

A doctor friend of mine told me do never go into grocery stores that have a pharmacy located within. He said that grocery stores are highly populated and grocery stores with pharmacies located within or highly populated with people who are sick and looking to fill prescriptions for their illnesses. Influenza being prominent during influenza season. I also stay out of venues that have a large number of people inside and in general just staying away from areas or conditions which have a lot of people who are hacking and coughing which is very easy to do if you do not have to go there. So the strategy is to simply maintain a situational awareness of where you are going and how many people that you are or are not planning to be around. And it seems to work, because I haven’t had a cold and several years.


34 posted on 01/06/2018 10:00:13 AM PST by Clutch Martin (Hot sauce aside, ever culture has its pancakes, just as every culture has its noodle.)
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To: BenLurkin

Two words once again
Colloidal silver
You can make your own for free with distilled water 3 9v batteries and two silver electrodes
I never get sick and neither do the wife and kids
Once in a blue moon the norovoirus gets one kid or other for a day then I kill it with relentless silver
CS kills ALL known viruses and bacteria
Ask the medical establishment ? Oh chicken soup and tamilfu and shots

Don’t be fooled

Use the ancient medicine from Socrates time


35 posted on 01/06/2018 10:06:27 AM PST by Truthoverpower (The guvmint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt; Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; ...

p


36 posted on 01/06/2018 10:11:11 AM PST by bitt (The first to squeal gets the best deal.)
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To: Truthoverpower

And just so you freepers know I’m a Chem E from Cal and Mech E and have been doing this for 30+ years now. Silver is the KEY to pathogen destruction
Don’t even get me started on the evil vaccine industry. Yes industry
It’s truly liberalism do goiderness from HELL


37 posted on 01/06/2018 10:11:27 AM PST by Truthoverpower (The guvmint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: Truthoverpower

Saw a blue/grey guy soon after we moved to New Mexico while waiting for a seat in a restaurant.

He saw we were obviously not from New Mexico and struck up a conversation about where we were from.

My youngest son, then 8, innocently asked “What happened to your skin?”

“Colloidal silver...been taking it my whole life, never been sick, not even a cold.”

My son looked at him with all seriousness and said “I’d rather have the flu once in a while.”


38 posted on 01/06/2018 10:13:23 AM PST by Crusher138 ("Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just")
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To: Truthoverpower

“You are a tool of government and industry too....”


39 posted on 01/06/2018 10:13:38 AM PST by gathersnomoss
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To: BenLurkin

I remember the Swine Flu epidemic that did not happen. More people died of heart attacks standing in line to get the shot than flu.
One man did come down with the swine flu and the news media camped outside his door every day expecting him to fall over and die.
A physician ventured an opinion that if we had the same flu as in 1918, it would be no big deal as those who died then were killed by the resulting pneumonia, and we had anti-biotics for it now. But that was in the 1970s.


40 posted on 01/06/2018 10:14:24 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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