Saturday, October 24, 2009
The H1N1 Chaos
Obama has made it offical! He recentley just passed a law stating that hospitals are going to get over 1 million doses of the h1n1 vaccine in order to prevent its spreads! he said the rate of people dying has reached its hi9ghest peak: :Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity"! This is crazy! It is amazing though because the virus lost its intrest into the summer and as schools gone back the thought of this disease has increased dramatically! Schools are going crazy and personally it is the craziest thing I have ever experienced. Sadly I have seen so many people at school continuing to get sick(including me) and I just hope it continues to stop. Yes, I admit the flu is being over thought of latley but it better to do that then have death rates increase!Hopefully having Obamas thoughts into this will help the countrys health get better. This is a law passed that will help all of us and I am very thankful it is here today(official saturday). If you would like to look at what moreObama has done to help us with this virus check the link out!
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8 comments:
I think everyone is building up the Swine Flu way out of proportion. Yes, it is scary that H1N1 is a new strain and that it can possibly mutate, but the current strain going around is not too different from the seasonal influenza. What most people don't realize is that, approximately 36,000 people die each year from the "normal" flu (link at bottom). So, comparatively, the swine flu is not much more deadly than the "normal" flu. The H1N1 virus is actually pretty similar to the seasonal influenza in terms of it's effects and mortality. Of course, vaccines are a great preventative measure, but I think people need to be a bit more educated on the statistics of all types of influenza before they freak out about swine flu.
link:http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/05/how_do_we_know_how_many_people.php
From what I understand, swine flu is a threat, but it is not as big of a deal as everyone keeps making it.
What Sabrina said is true. While many people have died from swine flu so far, the average death toll of the regular flu is also rather shocking.
Also, while hand sanitizer is being widely distributed in the effort to stop the spread of swine flu, it is not the most effective measure. The best thing to do is always to wash your hands. In case you didn't know, the hand sanitizer kills most bacteria, but does nothing to viruses besides getting rid of their method of reproducing. Even if you use hand sanitizer, if you touch your mouth or eyes, the virus can still infect you. So the best way to get rid of it is to rinse them off your hands. And the best tools for the job are soap and water.
~Victor Hung
"he said the rate of people dying has reached its hi9ghest peak"
Woah there; there have been worse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
Much, much worse.
And the flu has always been like this; there's no reason to be shocked.
"Schools are going crazy and personally it is the craziest thing I have ever experienced."
Please don't tell me this is the first time you've heard of a flu season.
"Sadly I have seen so many people at school continuing to get sick(including me) and I just hope it continues to stop."
People get sick from the flu every year even with vaccines available.
I've contracted the flu a couple months ago, and I survived. You need to relax. It's the flu season; people get sick quite often.
I agree that the recent hand sanitizer, etc. craze may be taking the threat of H1N1 virus too seriously, but I don't think this is just a normal flu season. Whether H1N1 is worse then normal flu or not doesn't change the fact that there now have to be efforts to get TWO vaccines to the public, increasing the difficulty of inoculating those at risk. Since the high risk groups are different for H1N1 and seasonal flu (the young versus the elderly), there are more people that need at least one of the vaccinations.
This article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/politics/25flu.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1256515340-0adtBIKZ74v7qd8oQ3j0Hg) mentions problems with production of the H1N1 vaccine and "temporary local shortages" of the seasonal flu vaccine, suggesting that this is definitely a higher-pressure flu season than normal.
-Esther A
Hey, maybe the swine flu hasn't been as serious as the normal flu has been in the past, but it's still only October. Flu season hasn't really started up yet. There's still tons of time for people to die.
-Francis Wang
That's a rather morbid thought Francis...but then again you have a point.
We just get to wait and see I guess...these recent deaths are just the start. The true "peak" hasn't happened yet.
I agree with Victor. Many people generally die from the regular flu itslef. Swine flu is just another type of flu that can be as dangerous as the regular flu. Also, I see the point being made on hand sanitizer. It is not the most effective way to prevent germs or viruses from getting into you. Even if you were to use hand sanitizer, after touching something else, you would have germs again. What difference would that make? Like Victor said, the best way is to wash your hands with soap and water.
Yes, flu season may be just beginning. So there is no way of knowing what can happen when it reaches its' peak.
I agree with Sabrina. I definitely think people are making Swine Flu seem like a more bigger deal than it really is. I also agree with Victor's train of thought. Most people don't even think of the regular flu as a big deal. I also believe that hand sanitizer isn't the greatest solution. It's even said that hand sanitizer can be dangerous for children because of the high alcohol content. Flus and colds are easily preventable if people take the precautions - like washing your hands thoroughly, like what Victor said.
So wash your hands! And don't forget the soap.
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