The Big Bad Flu, or Just the Usual?

The New York Times ^ | December 14, 2003 | LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

[Az Joe]

Man-eating sharks with the killer flu strain have been spotted off of Yuma, AZ crawling across the desert sand towards Phoenix.

[Gritty]

The Media is drumming this up into a panic.

People are always complaining about "the system" or "the government". My biggest beef is "the people", the ones who exhibit symptoms and refuse to stay home, or who have kids who are sick and refuse to leave them home. Instead, you find them in almost every line at the grocery store or Wal-Mart or in school, spreading disease willy-nilly to every innocent in sight. Rather than stay home and let the disease run it's course, they are out and about or flock to doctors' offices and ERs to infect everybody else just because they don't feel good.

The flu can be deadly to some. But, instead of common sense self-quarantine - which is adequate for most cases - people blithely go out spreading it like it is no problem they infect others. It is the height of selfishness and inconsideration. It borders on criminal negligence, IMHO.

I really get annoyed at this, and so should everybody else.

[Semper Paratus]

I'm afraid we're going to start hearing daily death counts as we move forward this season.

[Cobra64]

I'm afraid we're going to start hearing daily death counts as we move forward this season.

Well, Kobe, Lacy, and OJ are being replaced with the latest sensationalism called, "The FLU."

[Bean Counter]

Great article, and thank you for posting it. Another example of what the media fails to report, so they can drum up another scare.
I also agree with you that self-quarantine is probably the best preventative measure that noe can take.
As for me, I swear by my sauna, and step in to sweat at the first sign of a sniffle...

[OldFriend]

Normally the right vaccine would have been created which would have prevented such wide outbreaks.

[kdono]

Normally the right vaccine would have been created which would have prevented such wide outbreaks

1/4 of the H3N2 isolates are Panama and 3/4 are Fujian even though Panama has been in every vaccine batch since 2000. Thus, some people have had Panama 4 years in a row, but it still causes 1/4 of the H3N2 infections this season in the US (and at this time, almost all of the flu cases are H3N2).

[The Drowning Witch]

It's Captain Trips, man....we're all gonna die...

I've got a cookie for anyone who gets that literary reference.

Witch

[backhoe]

See tagline...

[who knows what evil?]

The Media is drumming this up into a panic.

No kidding. SOMEBODY is making a lot of money off this, and that's about it.

[who knows what evil?]

My biggest beef is "the people", the ones who exhibit symptoms and refuse to stay home, or who have kids who are sick and refuse to leave them home. Instead, you find them in almost every line at the grocery store or Wal-Mart or in school, spreading disease willy-nilly to every innocent in sight. Rather than stay home and let the disease run it's course, they are out and about or flock to doctors' offices and ERs to infect everybody else just because they don't feel good.

My wife just came home, and told me about a friend of hers who is whining that her daughter is sick, and that she is afraid that she might have the flu. In the next breath, she invites me wife to go to the mall with her for a little shopping. My wife, who isn't a dumb*ss, politely declined.

[StriperSniper]

in 1976, the government began drafting a plan for its response to a real pandemic. Then in 1993, it created a panel to come up with the plan. Many drafts have been prepared as the science has changed, but there is no final one

So after 17 years of failure to come up with a plan, government farms it out to 'a panel' and 10 years later there is still nothing....(Shaking head)......

[who knows what evil?]

I've got a cookie for anyone who gets that literary reference.

I used to live near the author in Bangor...what kind of cookies? :-)

[wardaddy]

too easy...at least it's not "The Rage".

[aristeides]

I've had a pretty bad cold the past week and a half that I suspect is in fact this flu (after a couple of days, I had sore muscles -- but those might be attributable to weightlifting.) Nothing terrible, but then I had a flu shot in October.

[Gritty]

SOMEBODY is making a lot of money off this, and that's about it.

I think there are five things behind the agenda:

1. Slam George Bush and his Adminstration for failing to take action "soon enough" or "aggressively enough" and indirectly pin the deaths and suffering on GWB and the GOP (next year is an Election, right?), and

2. Use this "crisis" to push for a new law requiring the Federal Government to take over the annual buying and distribution of vaccine for flu. In other words, it's another government medical program, leading incrementally toward government medicine in toto, and

3. Shift the blame from the clinton maladministration for nearly destroying our vaccine manufacturing industry (it all now becomes "Bush's fault"), and

4. Give the Trial Lawyers a banner year. They need more money to adequately fund their favorite Democrats, and

5. The Media, being chronically lazy, find it easier pontificating on this manufactured crisis which is blazing with emotion, rather than doing any real and difficult reporting on actual news - such as the recent Court decision on Campaign Finance Law or our succcesses in Iraq.

[OldFriend]

There is no way to create a vaccine in advance. At least not yet! And frankly, I'd rather not be vaccinated by the US government with vaccine they think might be effective against a strain of flu that might or might not strike one of these years.

[Squantos]

Alfred M. Hubbard.............?:o)

Stay Safe !

[StriperSniper]

And frankly, I'd rather not be vaccinated by the US government

Nor I!

I was just shaking my head at the utter waste.