I predict H1N1/Swine Flu will kill One Million Americans. SHIT it's bad and getting worse.

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

THey stink wrote:

It kills less than 1% of the people that get it. What's the big deal? You get the shot and can sill get the flu. That makes alot of friggin sense to me. IDIOT

Sorry, you're the idiot. You can NOT get the flu from the flu shot. It is a DEAD virus (inactivated). You can get some symptoms, but you are not getting the flu.

he didn't say you get the flu FROM the flu shot, just that you can get the vaccine and still get the flu (which is true).

THey stink wrote:

Okay, you can get the symptoms and sill get the flu.

Ok, you are saying you can initially get some symptoms (small reaction) from the shot, AND still get the flu later on. Ok, sure, it's true. But the small reaction is much less intense than getting the flu, and your likelihood of getting the flu goes way down if you get the flu shot.

Of course the odds of you dying from this flu are very low. But the odds of something bad happening to you from the flu shot are even much,much, lower than that. So if you are not afraid of the flu itself, why be afraid of the vaccine?

But remember, if you get get the flu and recover quickly, just because you don't have a bad reaction doesn't mean you can't spread it around to someone else who does (and who could die).

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

THey stink wrote: "It kills less than 1% of the people that get it. What's the big deal? You get the shot and can sill get the flu. That makes alot of friggin sense to me. IDIOT"

Sorry, you're the idiot. You can NOT get the flu from the flu shot. It is a DEAD virus (inactivated). You can get some symptoms, but you are not getting the flu.

Who's the idiot? He said it's possible to get the flu DESPITE having gotten the vaccine, not BECAUSE of the vaccine.

You all who are minimizing the H1N1 flu are foolish. Yes it does not affect the US pop at any greater rate than seasonal flu. BUT... seasonal flu kills vulnerable/compromised indivuduals, H1N1 kills perfectly healthy individuals.

If you have children, get them shots if you can

Getting H1N1 and it killing you is like buying a lottery ticket. Its unlikely but totally indiscriminant.

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

But remember, if you get get the flu and recover quickly, just because you don't have a bad reaction doesn't mean you can't spread it around to someone else who does (and who could die).

True. This is why doctors and nurses should be required to get vaccinated. Many of their patients are already weak from other illnesses or injuries.

duck in the chicken wrote:

Who's the idiot? He said it's possible to get the flu DESPITE having gotten the vaccine, not BECAUSE of the vaccine.

This has been pointed out to me, and i have answered it. Yes, I misread it, but I thought it wasn't written clearly.

Either way, his logic isn't very sound. Don't get the flu shot because it is not a 100% guarantee of not getting the flu? Do most of you not wear seatbelts because it won't guarantee to save your life if you are in car crash? Not wear a helmet when biking because there is no guarantee it will stop a head injury if you crash? Do you not practice ANY healthy/preventive lifestyle actions (eating fruits and veggies, taking certain vitamins, exercising, etc) because there is no guarantee that it will keep you from dying? Of course not. You do those things (for the most part) because the downside of doing them is low, and there is a good chance that doing them will keep you healthier/alive longer.

Same with the vaccine. The anti-vaccine paranoia in this country is getting a bit scary actually.

duck in the chicken wrote:

True. This is why doctors and nurses should be required to get vaccinated. Many of their patients are already weak from other illnesses or injuries.

Agreed. But you didn't read that part about how it is sometimes kills perfectly healthy people. Shades of H1N1 1918 where it PREDOMINATELY killed healthy people (of course not to that extreme, however, there is some similarity)

Just hysteria.... wrote:

Been there and left wrote:

Rush Limbaugh ... urging Americans not to get the H1N1 flu shot.

I'm pretty sure a swine flu shot is safer than oxycontin.

Hehe not sayin' much.

Someone who has had it wrote:

On the bad end, I am a HS Teacher/Coach. One freshman at my school did pass away from it. He was a perfectly healthy 14 yr old. He was at school on Wednesday and died on Saturday.

How do you know he was "perfectly healthy"? Do you have a copy of his medical file? People who "die" from the flu don't actually die from the flu. They die from complications caused by the flu. They almost always have some sort of other health problem or a compromised immune system. You can't tell if someone is healthy just by looking at them.

Doom and Gloom wrote:

I predict H1N1/Swine Flu will kill One Million Americans. SHIT it's bad and getting worse.

And you are...?

All I know is that I was having dinner with a friend of mine and less than 2 weeks later he was dead from H1N1 flu complications. 60 Minutes last night talked about secondary pneumonia taking advantage of the weakened person and being the killer.

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

Sorry, you're the idiot. You can NOT get the flu from the flu shot. It is a DEAD virus (inactivated). You can get some symptoms, but you are not getting the flu.

This is true of the flu shot. The Flumist vaccine is, however, a live attenuated (weakened) virus.

OP is a whiny bitch

The H1N1 vaccine has been given for a couple weeks now with no reported complications. It appears to be safe and will be effective in boosting one's immune system to H1N1. The arguments against Flu vaccines are largely based on irrational fear and/or bogus data. (Yes, I know about GBS in 1976).

The H1N1 fatality rate thus far is well under 1% (probably closer to .1%). But, for reasons CDC experts and experts elsewhere can't fully explain, it has caused serious illness and even death in some very healthy young people (similar to 1918). It is right that these people probably generated a very intense immune response who's side effects were lethal, or their H1N1 infection was followed shortly thereafter by a bacterial pneumonia.

I believe the 1918 fatality rate was estimated to be well under 2%. The fatality rate, though, is not important without knowing the infection rate. The 1918 infection rate was astronomical. What if the H1N1 infection rate in the U.S. this winter is 50%?? If 160 million people get H1N1 and the fatality rate is between .1 and .5%, how many will die? You guys can do the math. Not quite a million, but not far off.

No one knows what the infection rate will be, or the fatality rate exactly. But it is a serious problem and it is foolish to think the H1N1 vaccine won't mitigate the fatality rate.

immuno grad student wrote:

shit, the flu kills like 800,000 people a year anyway...what's another couple hundred thousand?

yet another example of the media hyping something that is already a "problem" (1 million deaths is not a lot and is normal) by using terms like "H1N1" and "swine flu" to drum up reactions from uninformed people.

The standard flu kills many people a year; for many it is part of the final straw, often because they get pneumonia and cannot recover.

The H1N1 virus has already killed as many people in the last three weeks of reporting (about a two week lag?) as the seasonal flu killed all last year and we are barely into the (standard) flu season. The total years lost to death are much higher because a lot more young people are dying from it that rarely died with the seasonal flu.

The characteristics are different and it is a little tricky trying to figure out what is going to occur. However, the pandemic flu planning that was spurred by the Avian (H1N5)

Here is a primer if you want to get a summary feel from an informed source that I know very well:

WHO’s Pandemic Phases:

Phase 1: No known infections in humans

Phase 2: Animal influenza is known to have caused infection in humans

Phase 3: Limited human transmission

Phase 4: Community-level outbreaks

Phase 5: Human-to-human spread in at least two countries in one region

Phase 6: Outbreaks in at least two regions (pandemic!)

CDC’s Response Stages

0: Domestic animal outbreak overseas

1: Suspected human outbreak overseas

2: Confirmed human outbreak overseas

3: Widespread human outbreaks in multiple locations overseas (pandemic!)

4: First human case in North America

5: Spread throughout United States

What’s Different about Swine Flu?

Planning assumptions based on avian flu:

Disease would start in animals

Disease would start in a remote at-risk region

We’ll watch it spread from animals to humans, and from remote regions to the U.S. (weeks!)

Reality of swine flu:

Disease outbreak was identified in people first

Disease may have been in U.S. prior to 2009

March 2009 outbreak in Mexico

91 confirmed U.S. cases by end of April 2009, and 11 countries affected (Phase 5!)

What’s Different about Swine Flu?

Not highly lethal!

Case fatality ratios:

Avian flu 50%!

1918 pandemic 2%

Swine flu ~0.4% or less

Seasonal flu <0.1% usually

Case fatality ratios similar to upper range of that for seasonal influenza (or less):

And relatively low hospitalization rates

Although some people do get extremely sick

Elderly (born before 1957?) at relatively low risk!

Appear to have some level of immunity

Still at high risk if they do get sick

“Most severe cases and deaths have occurred in adults under the age of 50”:

“In stark contrast with seasonal influenza, where 90 percent of severe and fatal cases occur in people 65 years of age or older”

Some surprises about vulnerable groups:

Certain medical conditions (asthma, diabetes, etc.)

Increased risk during pregnancy

Obesity frequently present in severe and fatal cases

Some healthy young people becoming severely ill:

Apparently due to viral pneumonia

Different patterns of spread:

Less mixing than assumed in epidemiological models

Disease seems to come in “bursts”:

High rate of infection on campuses at start of year

High rate of infection at some schools but not others

Wisconsin Dells schools closed in October due to flu:

Absenteeism rates of 10% or more at middle school and elementary schools

Large water parks in the Dells had no unusual pattern of employee absenteeism!

Areas hit hard in spring have relatively little flu now:

Areas that had big outbreaks in the spring, like New York, are seeing less swine flu now

Only 10 to 20 percent of New Yorkers were ill with flu last spring, but as many as 20 to 40 percent may have developed immunity

High levels of immunity may make the second wave of swine flu less extensive than expected

Similar experience in southern hemisphere:

The infection appeared to have a six-seven week ascent to peak (with fairly rapid decline thereafter)

This may be similar to what is seen during an average flu season

Swine flu peaked early and unexpectedly in mid July

This flu season has not been much worse overall than 2007

“Herd immunity” showing up earlier than expected:

In New Zealand, the pandemic began to decline even though only about 11% of the population had been infected

In Boston, an estimated 11% of teenagers got swine flu in spring, but schools and colleges services have reported little flu this fall

Only 10-20% of New Yorkers were sick with swine flu last spring, but up to 40% may have been exposed and become immune

Herd immunity will not prevent people from getting sick:

But may reduce the rate at which the disease spreads

Elderly (born before 1957?)

holy crap, i better order a coffin in a few years

if millions start dying, would it be considered by some religious fanatics that the plagues of revalation are happening? or are they already freaking out?

Five wrote:

Doom and Gloom wrote:

I predict H1N1/Swine Flu will kill One Million Americans. SHIT it's bad and getting worse.

And you are...?

Steve