Pinging the folks on the flu list to your comment and links, EternalHope. I don’t think we should ever underestimate anything which has great lethal potential. I’m no fan of hysteria, either, but foreknowledge of potential threats helps one be prepared to deal with them if they occur.
Thanks for the ping!
I just wrote a sort of flu summary update.
I may freepmail it to you and you can tell me what you think. I really, REALLY don’t want to get into a thread with people saying it’s a hoax, chicken little, crap like that.
I’ve been reading on PFI and Niman’s site for days one end and this is dire, much much worse than last year, and looks as though tamiflu resistence is setting in, and the vax isn’t on target any more.
Bad.
Thanks Smokin’ Joe, Happy New Year! Please forgive if this is a redundant ping. The ECMO acronym stands for Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation, IIRC. Folks needing ECMO means that their lungs are out of action for all intents and purposes, if and until they can recover.
This bears watching - whatever is going on in UK is the real thing, not hype.
And from a political standpoint - we should be watching closely as the UK’s GOVERNMENT healthcare system is falling apart. Hospitals cut the number of ICU beds recently and really feeling the pinch. There is even starting to be some rationing of antibiotics, flu vax, etc.
So explain to me again why anyone in their right mind would WANT this kind of healthcare deform for our country?
For more reading
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/07/sickening-flu-failure-115875-22831940/