Swine flu and Britain
Bookworm on Jul 17 2009 at 1:51 pm | Filed under: Britain, England, Health
Here, at home, it’s barely news. In England, it’s a true epidemic, with the current spread and death rate hinting at up to 65,000 deaths as the disease runs its course.
Are we in the U.S. hit less hard? Are we hearing less about how hard we’re hit?
I’m asking, but I’m sure not answering, since I have no answers, not to mention that I’m an epidemiological ignoramus. What do you, oh, my wise and informed readers, have to say about this?
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10 Responses to “Swine flu and Britain”
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Let’s not overreact! A lot of projections are more manifestations of journalistic hysteria than they are reflections of sage analysis. Look at Global Warming
.
If the death rate from swine flu really does go that high (which I doubt it will), what will it say about the British national healthcare system? Perhaps we will then have two clear sets of comparative data with which to discuss the best way to reinvent our own country’s health care system.
It’s not the swine flu causing deaths. It’s NHS trying to deal with the swine flu that’s causing fatalities.
Two of my nephews have come down with swine flu. One in Israel the other here in CA. Since both are healthy young men, it was treated like any other flu. Stay home a few days, drink a lot. They are both fine, so I have no idea what is going on in Great Britain.
Britain is probably experimenting with something called involuntary euthanasia. They can always say the cause of death was something else.
This compares with 6,000 from normal seasonal flu and 21,000 in the last flu epidemic in the winter of 1999/2000.
But the thousands that died in Iraq or were wounded was such a disaster, so said the anti-Americans in Britain.
When it comes to propaganda, it all depends.
On the news last night (can’t find the link; I think it was on KTVU), they mentioned California has had 55 deaths due to swine flu–23 of them in the last week. It was that last bit of info that worries me. Is this turning into a epidemic? Or has the rate of infection remained stable and these deaths are a statistical fluke or within a particularly vulnerable population? I wish there was more information available.
I’m a sentinel agent for flu for the state of NJ. In my small practice we have had two confirmed and one probable case of the dreaded swine flu. Everyone recovered well on Tamiflu.
The tone of the article in the Mail On Line is needlessly hysterical. The “normal” fatality rate from flu per year of 6,000 in the UK is comparable to the 36,000 annual fatality rate in the US. And there are rather wide swings in the actual fatality rates year to year. The description of younger children being more susceptible to the flu is the normal situation. I am mildly dismayed that the NHS feels it is necessary to get Tamiflu into the hands of everyone in the nation sans a proper exam. Excessive use of any antibacterial or antiviral drug increases the resistance of the bacteria or virus to the drug. All that sniffles, sneezes, and has a temp of greater than 100.4 is not the flu.
What I found mildly disturbing about the article is the lack of discussion of vaccination. That is the way to deal with the flu. Three manufacturers have been asked by the CDC to begin production of a vaccine for just the swine flu. The normal seasonal flu vaccine has already been produced. The CDC has not decided yet whether the swine flu will be a problem this year or not. If they do, then we all need two flu shots. One for the seasonal flu viruses that are out there, and one for the swine flu. Them’s the breaks. There is a lot of discussion of “high risk groups” etc, etc. In my opinion, every man, woman, and child needs a flu shot every year.
And of course, follow you mother’s advice. Get a good night’s sleep, take your vitamins, and if ill, gargle with salt water.
Al
There is a lot of discussion of “high risk groups” etc, etc. In my opinion, every man, woman, and child needs a flu shot every year.
The people allergic to such shots and cannot take them at all without being crippled or brain damaged, has a better chance of a better life with the flu than with the shot.
There is no one size fits all solution. The Democrat utopia has already taught us that, theoretically.
I’ll be in England next week — I’ll send a first-hand report of how many bodies I see in the streets.
Wagons rolling along with men in masks shouting “Bring out the Dead!”