LETTER: Swine flu is real danger
Published: November 4, 2009
The president has declared the swine flu pandemic a “national emergency” and this will facilitate the implementation of emergency measures by local hospitals.
The Swine flu is different than the seasonal flu virus in the way in which it attacks the respiratory system: Victims have trouble breathing and get a deadly viral pneumonia that penetrates deep into the
lungs. So far, by careful observation and what has been learned from autopsies performed on those who have died here in the U.S., doctors and scientists have deducted that the very young, pregnant
women, women, the obese, and those with reduced immunity are more in danger of becoming ill from it.
Many of those who become ill will recover without any major problem, but a few will experience a severe respiratory illness that could result in death.
There will probably not be enough vaccine for everyone and there is new talk that it will take two vaccinations to protect people from the swine flu.
This pandemic is serious business and the medical community will be taxed to the limit trying to care for so many gravely ill patients; so, much is expected from community volunteers and businesses
that can provide resources for the care of those who become ill.
Your local Health Department will take direction from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta and will have a major role in the mass vaccination and prevention activity in the community.
Contact your family physician and follow his/her advice, also contact your hospital, your health care department, your pharmacist and your emergency medical service team to find out what you should do, and what they are doing to prepare for the Swine Flu pandemic. Ask you employer what their flu prevention and recovery policy is.
And don’t forget that this is the regular flu season and that you also need to get vaccinated for the regular influenza virus.
LOUIS GINESI DOMINGUEZ
Gainesville
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Reader Reactions
“The Obama administration had adequate time to prepare for a swine flu outbreak this flu season and they failed.“
This is a total crock of Republican garbage. I seriously cannot believe the ignorant, verbal diarrhetic nonsense that gets posted on here daily.
The delays in the H1N1 vaccine have come from manufacturers. Vaccine manufacturers revealed in JULY of this year that they were having trouble brewing the vaccine. According to the AP: “The chief ingredient is grown in eggs, and companies were getting far fewer doses per egg than they usually do for regular winter flu vaccine.“
So the end result is that the vaccine is taking longer to be manufactured than was predicted.
Believe it or not, President Obama isn’t personally brewing up flu vaccines. And I kind of doubt he was the person estimating how long it would take to deliver enough vaccine. We can’t even really blame this on the former President Bush who happened to be in office this time last year when swine flu was starting to become a problem and presumably got the ball rolling on vaccines in the first place. (And if he didn’t, then why not???)
So I suggest you go back to commenting on things Republicans are knowledgeable about: i.e. teabagging, ignoring science, airport bathroom rendezvous, etc;
And that was 500 cases of Guillain-Barr possibly linked to the vaccine with 25 deaths.
See wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain–Barré_syndrome
Link not proven because incidences are so low. 500 cases max out of 100 million doses is not high.
DO you know how many mumps and measles cases occurred in the UK because rumors of a link to autism caused panic?
No I don’t trust the government. Take the BSE/Mad Cow farce but the flu vaccine is very similar to the seasonal one and vaccine production has hopefully become more reliable in 33 years.
A lot more than 500 died from the flu..
If the side effects of the H1N1 vaccine are known, they have not been publicized by a single bona fide expert. What are they??
In 1976, the swine flu vaccine administered then resulted in several hundred cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome - a extremely debilitating disease. Paralysis is one of the manifestations - a rather serious side effect, in my opinion.
The British Health Protection Agency (HPA) is warning their doctors to expect a repeat problem with the current H1N1 vaccine. What are our experts saying? Nothing, of course.
I was an attorney with the federal government for thirty years. The last organization that I would trust is the federal government.
It is the same vaccine as the seasonal flu just using a different strain of the flu. The side effects are known; don’t panic.
The government has ordered sufficient vaccine but the manufacturers can only do so much. This is nothing like Katrina.
To date, not one bona fide expert has made public any anticipated side effects of the H1N1 vaccine.
Why?
The Obama administration had adequate time to prepare for a swine flu outbreak this flu season and they failed.
Let this be a sign to Amercan’s that our goverment is unable to effectively administer a public option for healthcare.
Liberals blamed the devastration caused by hurrican Katrina on George Bush. Where are those same Liberals now when their president is failing to protect it’s people?
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