Swine Flu/H1n1 (whatever) should change travel plans

@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

So the question is how to judge significance.

The fact is that there are lots of very important things that you can do to address the flu. They are prominently being pushed by the CDC. They include:

- hand washing
- keeping kids home if they have a fever.
- cough/sneeze hygiene
- etc.

It seems to me that public health officials aren't pushing the H1N1 flu shot to the general public too urgently. This would seem to imply that

1. Hand washing, keeping kids home with a fever and cough hygiene is more effective than having everyone take the vaccine.
2. Hand washing, keeping kids home with a fever and cough hygiene is less intrusive than having everyone take the vaccine.

I don't think the evidence warrants those conclusions.

1) The vaccine is not available yet. I suspect the big push for vaccination is on hold until it is.
2) The early doses of the vaccine are being targeted at high-risk groups. Pregnant women, children, asthma sufferers, people with suppressed immune systems, etc. The big push for vaccination could be on hold until those folks are taken care of.

Further, we already have a lot of radio ads for the seasonal flu; that vaccine is available.

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Pandemic of pan flu, oh to edit that.

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@DrewDad,

I just got a regular old flu shot. Not sure I'll go for the porky. I'm nice and old, which sort of cuts me out, but then I have asthma history, occasionally scare city as in if this gets worse I'll make a call, which lets me in - but not so much lately, thus the word history. I think I'll monitor availability and get it if there is enough vaccine for the kids, etc.

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@ossobuco,

You should also get the pneumonia shot, if you haven't done so in the past 5 years. It's a major complication of having the flu, and more often fatal.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

They're not going to have any until mid-month and those are only for health care workers. For the general public - not available to some time in November.

I wonder how come we're so ahead of you re the vaccine?

I'm a health care worker, so I have vaccination available (nay, strongly pushed, of course) but it's publicly available...

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

Further, we already have a lot of radio ads for the seasonal flu; that vaccine is available.

up here, people have been warned off having the seasonal vaccine if they're planning to have the H1N1 vaccine - or at least advised to have it secondarily.

weird how things are so different in terms of recommendations from country to country

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@DrewDad,

Quote:

1) The vaccine is not available yet. I suspect the big push for vaccination is on hold until it is.

Fine. If there is a scientifically based big push to get me vaccinated, I will get the vaccine.

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@roger,

Hi, Roger, yes, I got a pneumo shot in, ah, 2006.

I'm a good patient type, yes, but then I've usually had superb docs, though I know of some iffies. I'm sluggish on the eyes lately, but picking up speed.

It's weird to go from having blue cross, at whatever monthly payments always beyond my ability, horrid deductible and horrid estimation of what they would pay, part of why I am puddling for money now, to dealing with clinics.

However, I definitely appreciate one clinic doc, am fine enough with another, and wave hand at a third as perhaps waning in reading comprehension in a rushed setting, and if anyone wants to argue, I've some experience re that kind of judgement. Not sure that's all that different with the insurance corp system, doc per patient. Not that you said otherwise, Roger, I'm just talking.

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@dlowan,

I have no idea. But like others said the seasonal flu is available. I only get it if I happen to be somewhere that they are giving it out. Last year, I got it at work during a health fair (went to the health fair to get all the free crap that I can play with at my desk).

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

1) The vaccine is not available yet. I suspect the big push for vaccination is on hold until it is.

Ha. Just as the H1N1 vaccine becomes available, there's a segment on 60 Minutes all about H1N1 and the CDC kept hammering the message to get vaccinated.

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So we still don't have the H1n1 shots available. I just had an appointment for my daughter at the doctor's. They had the seasonal flu shot which she got, but expected the H1N1 to be in some time in November - couldn't even put her name in as they have no idea when in November.

Also, I usually get my seasonal flu shot at work (they do it free and it is obviously easy) - it was supposed to be on Monday, but we just got an email saying they don't have it - their supply has run out.

I guess I could call my doctor, but seeing I've never caught the flu and rarely get the shot - just when it is easy for me - I'll probably just risk it for me.

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

DrewDad wrote:
Further, we already have a lot of radio ads for the seasonal flu; that vaccine is available.

up here, people have been warned off having the seasonal vaccine if they're planning to have the H1N1 vaccine - or at least advised to have it secondarily.

weird how things are so different in terms of recommendations from country to country

This is the first I've heard of this. Well, how nice, especially since we really don't have any assurance of H1N1 being available to everyone.

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@Linkat,

Yeah, supplies are running out fast here too.

We've had several confirmed cases in our school district. Sozlet's friend and soccer teammate may or may not have it -- she's definitely sick, and we heard she does have H1N1 from one person, and that she doesn't from another. Some possibility that she does but the family doesn't want to advertise it. Sozlet's best friend's sister is sick and was tested yesterday -- if it's H1N1, chances are very high that sozlet will get it. (Sister and BF are very close and sleep in the same room; sozlet and BF are very close and are always near each other, hugging, etc.)

I know a few people who have had it and it was a blip. Just not bad at all.

I still waggle between stoicism and fear. What concerns me most is that too many healthy kids are getting really sick (some deaths, some hospitalizations... nobody we know). As in, no asthma or other obvious problems. Perfectly healthy, fit, etc. And young. Sigh.

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@roger,

I saw that debunked somewhere in an opinion piece yesterday. I've also read that the regular seasonal flu shot may be somewhat protective against H1N1.
Of course, I know nothin' myself.

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@ossobuco,

There are two strands of thought and I haven't seen either one completely debunked yet.

Strand one: a Canadian study found that people who got seasonal flu vaccinations were slightly more likely to get H1N1 than people who didn't. It could be correlation-not-causation -- that the people who are most at-risk got the seasonal flu vaccination, but since they're most at-risk, they're most at-risk, and so more got H1N1.

Strand two: if you're healthy and robust you are less likely to catch the H1N1 virus, so it's a good idea to get seasonal flu vaccination so you're more likely to be healthy when you (pretty much inevitably) run into the H1N1 virus.

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@sozobe,

Thanks. I like the assurance of something that at least sounds reasonable.

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@sozobe,

Just heard that sozlet's best friend's sis does NOT have H1N1. So that's a bit of a sigh of relief, though I really think we just have to expect exposure. If not from her friends/ school, from Mr. Globe-trotting Professor. (Airplanes, universities, huge classes -- all risk factors.)

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

I still waggle between stoicism and fear.

Yeah.

For the first time today, I heard of recommendations that if you are at high risk (pregnant, asthma, diabetes, etc.) then you should limit your exposure (e.g., avoid crowds).

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@roger,

I asked my daughter's doctor about this and she gave me the lecture around how the internet can be valuable and at the same time give you incorrect information. She explained that the H1N1 flu shot has been developed similar to the seasonal flu shot. There is no problem receiving both and they will not impact the other and the H1N1 is no different process than the seasonal flu - as the seasonal needs to revamped each year the process they used for both is the same.

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@DrewDad,

My friend and I were just musing about whether it would be SO bad if we just homeschooled our kids for a month or two. Or three.

Sigh.

(No sooner had I exhaled re: best friend's sis testing negative for H1N1, I wander into the kitchen to finish reading the newspaper only to see, on the page I'd already had open, an article saying that about 40% of the quick H1N1 tests are wrong! Argh.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/health/policy/21flu.html

Quote:

By some accounts, when a rapid flu test indicates that a patient does not have the flu, it is wrong 40 percent of the time. Even more sophisticated tests often go wrong because many doctors and nurses are unskilled at taking nasal swabs. (A correctly done swab “feels like the Q-tip is going into your brain,” one expert said.)

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Swine Flu/H1n1 (whatever) should change travel plans

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