Posted on 04/26/2009 8:06:06 PM PDT by krogers58
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged on Friday that "concern has grown" since the first reports of a novel swine flu infecting patients in Texas and California emerged late March.
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the agency, said health officials are closely tracking the spread of the swine flu, after additional cases of flu and some deaths were reported in Mexico.
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In preparation for such a scenario, the CDC has created a seed stock of a vaccine against the swine flu, which could be pushed into production should the number of cases jump significantly. The CDC did not specify what the threshold for vaccine production would be.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
As i will take months to make even enough to make a dent, they should have started in March, when flu first started.
I thought the CDC said this was already out of control, and would sweep the population?
We’re doomed.
I guess they can rush it into production for the political class at least. I’d guess no matter how long it takes, it might be useful for some. This flu could make the rounds again this fall, in its mutated form.
A little history lesson on swine flu vaccinations:
The dangers of overreacting to a flu pandemic are well known to the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta. In January 1976 an 18-year-old American army recruit, Private David Lewis, collapsed after an all-night training exercise. He died a few hours later in the base hospital of Fort Dix, New Jersey. Like about 300 other recruits he had complained of typical flu symptoms but Private Lewis had ignored the medical officer’s orders to go to bed and went off on his exercise.
His death was caused by a previously unknown variant of swine flu A/H1N1. What really spooked the CDC was its similarity to the strain that killed more than 40 million people worldwide in 1918.
The CDC rightly decided to develop a swine flu vaccine for use in the following flu season. Despite careful planning, the national influenza vaccination programme went wrong from the outset. Two doses of vaccine were expected from each egg used, but only one materialised, setting back the timetable dramatically. Then doctors discovered that the vaccine doses that worked well for adults did not protect children effectively. At this point there were only four million doses for 57 million children.
Just as the programme seemed dead on its feet an outbreak of fatal pneumonia broke out at the Pennsylvania Convention of the American Legion, killing 29 people. This was later identified as Legionnaire’s disease, hence its name. The media linked it with swine flu and politicians joined in the clamour to push forward the swine flu vaccination programme.
The threat from swine flu was vastly exaggerated, so that eventually the President, Gerald Ford, took charge. A mass vaccination went ahead even after it became clear that swine flu was not a danger. In fact, Private Lewis was the only person to die from a mere 300 cases. The programme cost more than $200 million and as a side-effect there were thousands more regular flu deaths because of a lack of vaccine.
Another rare and fatal side-effect occured in about nine in every million of those vaccinated, who developed Guillain Barré Syndrome, a paralytic disease. When so many are involved, rarities become numerous. There were 500 cases and 25 deaths from GBS. The vaccination programme was stopped, having only treated 24 per cent of the population. And because the US Government had indemnified the vaccine manufacturers before the programme began (because American insurers wouldn’t take on the risk) they had to pay out an additional £39 million in compensation claims.
The point is not that mass vaccination is wrong. Far from it. But vaccination has to be carefully considered. The risks have to be clearly balanced against the benefits, decisions have to be taken on the science not the politics and frequently re-evaluated. For the one thing that will never change is flu’s capacity to surprise us.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6175186.ece
Folks,
Calm down. We have less than 50 cases in North America and I have not seen one death yet. Let’s not blow this thing out of proportion.
Joe, I am dying with laughter - tears streaming, threatening to rust my girders, since mine aren’t gilded! Hilarious! Thanks!!!
If you can't gild your girders, you may want to consider lubing your loins!
This'll prevent rust and you can laugh all you want...
Oooooh.... smooooooth!
Mmmmmmm... banana berry!
For internal use only. Do not apply to loins :-D
LOL! Thanks, Doc!
Available ONLY to Congress (which left the borders open
for this) and to Democrats chosen by the WH.
by fall there will be enough vaccine. Actually they can fast track it and have it sooner than that.
THe 1918 flu had an outbreak in the spring, died down and returned in the fall to be the pandemic. This virus may do the same.
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