Swine Flu: What the Hell Happened?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Arrogant? No.

I simply go off statistical analysis and even plenty of doctors who felt it was overblown in comparison to other things.

It was serious for some who got the disease and some died (not 18,000.. excuse me: 12,270 people have died from 2009 H1N1-related illness. ) but not much for everyone else in comparison with symptoms/effects of the seasonal flu virus.

Hell, many people were confused between the "H1N1" and the seasonal flu throughout the year and even many doctors diagnosed H1N1 without even giving blood tests to determine if it was the H1N1 virus.

People want to fear new things that aren't understood, especially when they hear about a virus or other incidents close to home, but the fact of the mater is, things are usually blown up from what they really are and sometimes you have to take a step back and look at things rationally in comparison to things similar. The job of the CDC is to make sure that they cover their asses in the event something is much bigger than what they want to make it out to be. If the CDC stood by and did nothing/didn't encourage anything they'd look like a bunch of dopes to the world community. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes down to it all. - Unfortunately sometimes being safe freaks people out and makes them think something is bigger than what it is, and that's exactly what happened here.

If there was ever any 'real' threat from this strain or any other strain of the flu, the preventative shots would be mandatory like with other major diseases.

Sure, Paul - you're not arrogant because YOU say so No matter what YOU actually say and how it appears to others - the simple fact that YOU say you aren't PROVES beyond any shadow of a doubt that you aren't. Brilliant

More rational than most? I totally am not laughing at that...

In case you hadn't noticed, this was a global disease that made headlines in nearly every country around the world. It wasn't just the CDC who were concerned about it; and strangely I would imagine that most people would take the world of public health officials over the word of some Lone Internet Ranger who thinks he is "more rational than most".

Edited April 26, 2010 by Its a MADHOUSE

[PhiLandShiR 18]

Arrogant? No.

I simply go off statistical analysis and even plenty of doctors who felt it was overblown in comparison to other things.

It was serious for some who got the disease and some died (not 18,000.. excuse me: 12,270 people have died from 2009 H1N1-related illness. ) but not much for everyone else in comparison with symptoms/effects of the seasonal flu virus.

Hell, many people were confused between the "H1N1" and the seasonal flu throughout the year and even many doctors diagnosed H1N1 without even giving blood tests to determine if it was the H1N1 virus.

Please provide support for this comment. I know SOME people were confused and SOME doctors failed to run tests but MANY??? I think not.

People want to fear new things that aren't understood, especially when they hear about a virus or other incidents close to home, but the fact of the mater is, things are usually blown up from what they really are and sometimes you have to take a step back and look at things rationally in comparison to things similar. The job of the CDC is to make sure that they cover their asses in the event something is much bigger than what they want to make it out to be.....

If you really believe that is the job of the CDC then I suggest you just stop posting and go back to your pipe for another hit ot 2....

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Sure, Paul - you're not arrogant because YOU say so No matter what YOU actually say and how it appears to others - the simple fact that YOU say you aren't PROVES beyond any shadow of a doubt that you aren't. Brilliant

More rational than most? I totally am not laughing at that...

In case you hadn't noticed, this was a global disease that made headlines in nearly every country around the world. It wasn't just the CDC who were concerned about it; and strangely I would imagine that most people would take the world of public health officials over the word of some Lone Internet Ranger who thinks he is "more rational than most".

*pats on head*

It'll be ok. Don't worry. You keep believing everything you are spoon fed every day.

[PhiLandShiR 18]

*pats on head*

It'll be ok. Don't worry. You keep believing everything you are spoon fed every day.

Maybe so... but you seem to have the bigger spoon....

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

*pats on head*

It'll be ok. Don't worry. You keep believing everything you are spoon fed every day.

Patronising too it seems - but I'd bet you'd deny that as well.

Yeah some day I too will be able to analyse a global public health crisis using nothing more than my gut and clairvoyancy.

[ScottThuy 140]

OIC its all clear now.. it did not affect him so it was blown out of porportion... whats next? was it a conspiracy created by Obama to get his health care agenda passed?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

OIC its all clear now.. it did not affect him so it was blown out of porportion... whats next? was it a conspiracy created by Obama to get his health care agenda passed?

Oh it effected me greatly. With mass stupidity of the public I should say. Watching the school district here close down for a week. Watching the city shut down public events, including the cancellation of a huge fesitval we do every year at the beginning of May. For what? A few people who died around here, a few more who got sick? Then of course the majority of people don't get the H1N1 shot and we are just perfectly fine.

Just because it hit close to home for some people doesn't mean it was that big either. As I said, I'm going off statistical analysis and also in comparison to other infectious/similar diseases out there. The H1N1 isn't the big "Oh my god" everyone made it out to be, just like SARS wasn't as well... People make the biggest deals the moment a few people die. It happens, it doesn't mean on the large scale though, that it's truly a 'big' thing.

[CDAgirlMI 51]

Any reason for that? I got mine and so did my pregnant wife...

No problems for any of us. Baby included...

I didn't want to.

I thought there was a lot of scare into getting people to get the shot.

I asked a nurse at a clinic I went to if I should get the shot. She hesitated & couldn't give me a straight answer. She said she got it, only because she's exposed to sick people.

There's always going to be flus/viruses going around. I was living in Toronto when SARS happened.

If there's a new strain of flu this in 2011, 2012, 2013...are people going to get innoculated for that too? I'm not a doctor, but how healthy is it for the body?

[PhiLandShiR 18]

I didn't want to.

I thought there was a lot of scare into getting people to get the shot.

I asked a nurse at a clinic I went to if I should get the shot. She hesitated & couldn't give me a straight answer. She said she got it, only because she's exposed to sick people.

There's always going to be flus/viruses going around. I was living in Toronto when SARS happened.

If there's a new strain of flu this in 2011, 2012, 2013...are people going to get innoculated for that too? I'm not a doctor, but how healthy is it for the body?

Well, I would guess its healthier than dying...

[PhiLandShiR 18]

Oh it effected me greatly. With mass stupidity of the public I should say. Watching the school district here close down for a week. Watching the city shut down public events, including the cancellation of a huge fesitval we do every year at the beginning of May. For what? A few people who died around here, a few more who got sick? Then of course the majority of people don't get the H1N1 shot and we are just perfectly fine.

Just because it hit close to home for some people doesn't mean it was that big either. As I said, I'm going off statistical analysis and also in comparison to other infectious/similar diseases out there. The H1N1 isn't the big "Oh my god" everyone made it out to be, just like SARS wasn't as well... People make the biggest deals the moment a few people die

In your area!!!

. It happens, it doesn't mean on the large scale though, that it's truly a 'big' thing.

Can't you see what you write? Your area did not have a major outbreak. I will bet every dollar I have that the doctors in your area isolated each and everyone of those 'few' who got sick. It was that very isolation that saved you....

Edited April 26, 2010 by PhiLandShiR

[Anna C. 4]

Yup, was way less bad than normal flu. My son (he was 11 month at that time) and I had it. He felt a little off for less than a day, I was sick for a week, was just like a cold... We wouldn't have gotten the shot if you paid us millions. No thanks to hysteria. DH had to get it thanks to the military and was pretty POed about it.

And even the normal flu (cmon people, it's the flu, not ebola!) isn't that bad. The claimed 36,000 deaths per year are old, susceptible people. It's sad, but true. Oh and don't get me started about all the studies that show any flu shot is ineffective in children under 2 and the rest of the studies that show low efficacy rates... (please visist pubmed and start reading) And how nearly every year they get the mixture wrong (they always put 3 strains into it, trying to predict which one will hit, mostly it's a miss!).. It's a huge waste of money. I wish I had bought stock in Novartis and Merck and CO to make some money off of the hysteria. Will do when the next FLU hits.

Edited April 26, 2010 by Anna C.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Can't you see what you write? Your area did not have a major outbreak. I will bet every dollar I have that the doctors in your area isolated each and everyone of those 'few' who got sick. It was that very isolation that saved you....

Ok, let's do simple mathmatics (though this isn't actual dispersement, just making a point).

Less than 13,000 US deaths from H1N1. Let's round up and use 13,000 for math purposes though.

We have 50 states. -- 13,000 / 50 = 260 deaths per state.

The US Population is roughly getting close to 310,000,000 people.

13,000 / 310,000,000 = 1 in 23,850 people in the nation who died from this disease. Compared in 1 in 5,500 that die in the US from the seasonal flu/pneumonia (based on 56,000 deaths) every year.

My point is, things aren't as "big" as they are made out to be. Figuring the majority of people have yet to get a "H1N1" shot and only about half the population take the time to get a seasonal flu shot (and many still get sick and die anyway), then it's not as 'big' as some like to freak out about...

[bakofoil 27]

Oh it effected me greatly. With mass stupidity of the public I should say. Watching the school district here close down for a week. Watching the city shut down public events, including the cancellation of a huge fesitval we do every year at the beginning of May. For what? A few people who died around here, a few more who got sick? Then of course the majority of people don't get the H1N1 shot and we are just perfectly fine.

I'm sorry the whole H1N1 "hoax" was such an inconvenience to you. Of those people who contracted the virus and survived, many of them are undergoing months of rehabilitation therapy because H1N1 is not fun, nor is it merely an "ant-bite". My 58 year old mother-in-law spent 8 weeks in ICU, heavily sedated to prevent the physical exertion of coughing, on 100% oxygen and laid on her front so that the pneumonia in both her lungs might drain more efficiently. Her face was unrecognisable at the end, swollen and covered in bed sores from the pressure of laying prone for so long. Had she survived she would have spent months in a wheelchair due to muscle atrophy. The doctors estimated 1 week of therapy for every day spent in ICU based on a previous case they'd encountered - a 15 year old girl.

I'm not sharing this very personal and devastating experience with you to obtain sympathy but more to open your eyes to the impact H1N1 has had on some people's lives. Those few people who encountered it have been very much affected and you might want to think yourself fortunate that those experiences have educational merit for future outbreaks.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I'm sorry the whole H1N1 "hoax" was such an inconvenience to you. Of those people who contracted the virus and survived, many of them are undergoing months of rehabilitation therapy because H1N1 is not fun, nor is it merely an "ant-bite". My 58 year old mother-in-law spent 8 weeks in ICU, heavily sedated to prevent the physical exertion of coughing, on 100% oxygen and laid on her front so that the pneumonia in both her lungs might drain more efficiently. Her face was unrecognisable at the end, swollen and covered in bed sores from the pressure of laying prone for so long. Had she survived she would have spent months in a wheelchair due to muscle atrophy. The doctors estimated 1 week of therapy for every day spent in ICU based on a previous case they'd encountered - a 15 year old girl.

I'm not sharing this very personal and devastating experience with you to obtain sympathy but more to open your eyes to the impact H1N1 has had on some people's lives. Those few people who encountered it have been very much affected and you might want to think yourself fortunate that those experiences have educational merit for future outbreaks.

I highly doubt your grandmother was 100% healthy otherwise either.

As I said, I'm not making light of those who suffered or who had it impact their lives directly with a family member/themselves (hell, someone here at my office got it).

All I'm saying it statistically and in comparison with the seasonal flu (symptoms and all) it's a weak counter-part with the exception of the fact it's contagious for a couple of more days than the seasonal flu is.

[bakofoil 27]

I highly doubt your grandmother was 100% healthy otherwise either.

As I said, I'm not making light of those who suffered or who had it impact their lives directly with a family member/themselves (hell, someone here at my office got it).

All I'm saying it statistically and in comparison with the seasonal flu (symptoms and all) it's a weak counter-part with the exception of the fact it's contagious for a couple of more days than the seasonal flu is.

Do you read your statistical information as carefully as you read my post?

Edit to remove double post

Edited April 26, 2010 by bakofoil