(Also, the San Diegans with swine flu haven't been very sick at all. The kind of thing where they had a sore throat and found out later it was swine flu.... Apparently, all the U.S. cases have been very mild. I wonder why...? But the CDC is requiring swabs from any and all patients with respiratory symptoms (!!!). Whoa. That's a lot of patients to be swabbing!)
9 comments:
Actually, it's only anybody with respiratory symptoms AND fever that we have to screen (so that cuts the number down to only two gazillion people).
As far as theories on why it is milder here, there are a couple floating around. First is that the flu vaccine (this and past years) is partially protective (or attenuates the disease process). The people in Mexico that have been hardest hit have been younger adults (20s-40s), or the population segment that is least likely to be vaccinated for influenza in Mexico. The other is that most of the people sick in the U.S. have a history of travel to Mexico. Presumably, most of them weren't visiting the hospital in Mexico, so whoever they caught it from had a mild enough version of the virus that they were still out and about infecting other people. We probably won't know for another month or two (if at all) why exactly it's less severe here. I do think it's interesting that this is in the headlines so much. True, this virus had potentially killed a lot of people, but regular old influenza kills around 400,000 (!) people each year worldwide. So this isn't any worse.
But vaccines are good! And wash your hands!
Yes, it IS interesting it's in the headlines so much.... Are we going to war with Spain or are we not?! ;)
"You provide the prose poems.... I'll provide the war. HaHA. HaHA! Yes, I quite like that."
I'll add my conspiracy theory that the silly headlines about freaking out over swine flu somehow have to do with expediting Sebelius' appointment.
Oh the H1N1 virus makes me so mad! Because of it we had to cancel our trip to Mexico, we are now staying stateside. Now despite the fact that there are no confirmed cases in Cabo (where we were headed) we have changed our trip to a state that has confirmed cases and likely will have more people around vacationing in the deserted Mexico. Why did we do this when it goes against all my reasoning? Because I was being shunned by work, school, etc, told we couldn't come back when we returned. So instead I will go to a more likely place to contract it but come back and be immediately integrated back into society. Seriously people, can we say over reaction? Why are we counting (what has turned out to be) a mild flu by the 100's when the regular flu would be counted in the hundreds-of-thousands! Soooo very annoying, and I largely blame the press.
PS: America is making a ton of money off people changing their Mexico trips (in my humble opinion).
That's TERRIBLE, Hillary! Terrible! And insane. People actually were making a stink about going to Cabo? INSANE. I believe it, though, since everyone is nuts about this totally un-nutty thing. I know people who don't want to leave the house.... :-| Are you kidding me? And they're probably all people who didn't bother to get a flu shot, right?! Ha ha! That's the funny thing. Here people just go about their daily lives, not bothering to wonder how susceptible they are to flu (which isn't altogether unreasonable, actually), and this WEAKER flu comes and infects about two-and-a-half people and they're afraid to go outside...? Even being afraid to get on a plane I just do not understand. I don't get how people are seeing the same statistics I'm seeing, and actually getting nervous. Bizarre. ...BIZARRE!!
Matt has had a gazillion patients with normal ol' colds coming in paranoid about swine flu. He's just had to laugh, and then makes the point that, wow, so great.... A bunch of semi-sick people all congregate together to share viruses. And if someone DOES have swine flu, they can spread it around while herding together for a lot of unnecessary flu checks. Yeah. Smart. Getting the public all up in a frenzy is good for stopping the spread of this, how...?
Our local high school is closed for two weeks—TWO WEEKS!—because of ONE "possible" case of H1N1 flu. All the athletes have to end their seasons prematurely, all the state testing pushed back.... Insane. And the fact that we can directly compare this to regular flu, which is more serious, and already know how we deal with THAT, just makes it even more bizarre.
Anyway, I could go on and on! Ha ha! I'm REALLY sorry your vacation had to be affected. That's AWFUL! Matt and I are headed to London next week (woo hoo!) and several people have expressed concern about us getting on a plane, but we're hoping, hey, maybe there won't be so many tourists! I figure, hey, Matt's been working in THE clinic that identified this flu, and no one's been worried about him needing to wear a surgical mask all the time. We should be able to go out into the world and be fine.
(Also, I'm really surprised if your work people were some of the ones to cause a stink. That's been one of the nice things about Matt working in medicine, is that his colleagues and superiors are appropriately ho-hum about this—taking the measures the CDC is asking for, but maintaining the reality that this isn't any more of a threat than the other viruses they're treating. No threats against Mexican vacations here! It's been nice. If there are clinicians you're working with who are being insane, they need to go!!! Hehe.)
Also, American tourism might get a little boost (actually, probably not with people not wanting to travel on planes!), but this whole thing is a drain to the economy. Which makes me think the media is REALLY not smart. I think they're just bored—have nothing else to talk about. But how do these people look themselves in the mirror every morning, knowing that the public is scared silly...?
One thing is for sure, America got YOUR vacation money, and that sucks! :)
Post a Comment