The Swine Flu is Obama’s “Katrina”
Posted by: The BoBo // Category: A Nation at Risk, African-Americans, America, Conservative, Democrats, Media Bias, Obama, Politics, President, government
Okay, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of July 18, 2009 there are 43,771 reported cases of Swine Flu in the United States and 302 deaths (see table below). In epidemiological terms this is just the tip of the ice berg.
Additionally, according to the CDC
“Nearly 100 percent of the influenza viruses being detected now are novel H1N1 viruses.”
This should be disturbing to everyone. The incubation period for H1N1 is typically 24 – 48 hours and symptoms can last for at least 7 days. Generally, the morbidity and mortality rate is 10% of total cases confirmed. What this means is that for the 43,771 thus far confirmed, there may actually be over 430,000 cases in the U.S. – there may actually be 3,000 deaths related to the swine flu that have been unconfirmed.
When you take in to consideration that the first case of Swine Flu was actually reported in late March 2009 in Mexico – it reached a pandemic status in just a matter of three months. Here we are 4 months later from the first confirmed case in the U.S. with 302 known related deaths and 43,000 confirmed cases. This thing is spreading like wild fire.
| States and Territories* | Confirmed and Probable Cases | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|
| States | |||
|
Alabama
|
477 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Alaska
|
272 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Arizona
|
947 cases
|
15 deaths
|
|
|
Arkansas
|
131 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
California
|
3161 cases
|
52 deaths
|
|
|
Colorado
|
171 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Connecticut
|
1713 cases
|
8 deaths
|
|
|
Delaware
|
381 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Florida
|
2915 cases
|
23 deaths
|
|
|
Georgia
|
222 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Hawaii
|
1424 cases
|
3 deaths
|
|
|
Idaho
|
166 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Illinois
|
3404 cases
|
17 deaths
|
|
|
Indiana
|
291 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Iowa
|
165 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Kansas
|
204 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Kentucky
|
143 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Louisiana
|
232 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Maine
|
145 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Maryland
|
766 cases
|
4 deaths
|
|
|
Massachusetts
|
1370 cases
|
5 deaths
|
|
|
Michigan
|
515 cases
|
9 deaths
|
|
|
Minnesota
|
670 cases
|
3 deaths
|
|
|
Mississippi
|
252 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Missouri
|
76 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Montana
|
94 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Nebraska
|
313 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Nevada
|
467 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
New Hampshire
|
247 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
New Jersey
|
1414 cases
|
15 deaths
|
|
|
New Mexico
|
232 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
New York
|
2738 cases
|
63 deaths
|
|
|
North Carolina
|
483 cases
|
5 deaths
|
|
|
North Dakota
|
63 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Ohio
|
188 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Oklahoma
|
189 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Oregon
|
524 cases
|
5 deaths
|
|
|
Pennsylvania
|
1960 cases
|
8 deaths
|
|
|
Rhode Island
|
192 cases
|
2 deaths
|
|
|
South Carolina
|
244 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
South Dakota
|
45 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Tennessee
|
283 cases
|
1 death
|
|
|
Texas
|
5151 cases
|
27 deaths
|
|
|
Utah
|
988 cases
|
16 deaths
|
|
|
Vermont
|
59 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Virginia
|
327 cases
|
2 deaths
|
|
|
Washington
|
658 cases
|
7 deaths
|
|
|
Washington, D.C.
|
45 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
West Virginia
|
243 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Wisconsin
|
6222 cases
|
6 deaths
|
|
|
Wyoming
|
111 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
| Territories | |||
|
American Samoa
|
8 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Guam
|
1 case
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Puerto Rico
|
20 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
Virgin Islands
|
49 cases
|
0 deaths
|
|
|
TOTAL (55)*
|
43,771 cases
|
302 deaths
|
|
There currently is no known vaccine available – see this past week’s Carnival – we had a submission from Lavender at News for Freedom Daily regarding the deadly vaccines coming out. Here’s what I would like to know – why aren’t these numbers being reported by the media? Why are they giving Obama and his administration a pass on this? Apparently, the Obama administration was not prepared for this pandemic outbreak and there is no immediate relief in sight. In the aftermath of Katrina – it is reported there were approximately 1,300 deaths as a result. Within days of this NATURAL disaster – one of the worst Hurricanes ever seen in this country – the lefties and the media were all over the Bush administration blaming him not only for the lack of response by the Mayor of New Orleans and the lack of response by the Governor of Louisiana but also for not being prepared for this.
So – why is no one blaming the Obama administration for their lack of preparation? Why is no one blaming the Obama administration for not anticipating the impact to the U.S. immediately following the first confirmed case? Why did the Obama administration not have any swine flu vaccines stockpiled? If Bush and his administration can be blamed for a natural disaster that could have been prevented if every President before him and every Mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana before them built stronger levees – then why are we not blaming Obama and his administration for this current outbreak and their total lack of response and lack of foresight and preparedness?
My dissertation will be on the H1N1 and looking for correlations and/or disparities among gender, race, ethnicity, age, and geography of those infected. I’ll bet I’ll find that the majority of those infected and those who died are from low income areas with low socioeconomic status. In my mind, the swine flu is indeed Obama’s Katrina. Only this time, he gets a pass for letting blacks die on his watch – with no real plan to contain or stop the spread. I hate to say this folks, but I believe that by the time this is over, and it won’t be any time soon, we will top more swine flu related deaths in the U.S. than the number of individuals who died in Katrina. Where is the outcry from the left now?
I guess deaths of U.S. citizens only matter when there is a Republican administration.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: Bush, CDC, government, H1N1, Katrina, Obama, Politics, swine flu
July 28th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I just searched and found this.
“One choice already is made: The U.S. government has spent $1.15 billion to buy enough vaccine to immunize the entire U.S. population against the new flu. If the government makes the decision to go ahead with a full-scale vaccination program, it would be the largest, fastest vaccination program in world history.”
There’s a lot in that article. Not everything, but its part of the story I suppose.
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090720/swine-flu-vaccine-when?page=2
(Link button didn’t work and had to edit.).
Reply to Brian Anderson
July 29th, 2009 at 12:29 am
@Brian – there is also this part you need to consider
“If we wait, we can’t do vaccination until November. If the pandemic
flu follows the seasonal-flu pattern with the bulk of activity in
January through March, fine. But if we see this second wave coming in
September, we might be faced with the decision to do vaccinations
without clinical data.”
Read that last sentence – “without clinical data.” What they are talking about is using a known vaccine made from the A H1N1 antigen. This novel H1N1 is a different strain. They don’t have any clinical data that proves the current stockpiles would be effective.
This is from a Newsmax article with regards to this new strain
“In the April 30, 2009 issue of Nature, a virologist was quoted as
saying,�Where the hell it got all these genes from we don�t know.�
Extensive analysis of the virus found that it contained the original
1918 H1N1 flu virus, the avian flu virus (bird flu), and two new H3N2
virus genes from Eurasia.”
Additionally, there are only two companies currently working on a vaccine for this strain – and – both are proving to be quite deadly right now. Novartis – who currently has the approval from WHO to create this vaccine has an adjuvant in their vaccine that is extremely harmful – also from that above article.
“What is terrifying is that these pandemic vaccines contain ingredients,
called immune adjuvants that a number of studies have shown cause
devastating autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis and lupus.”
The article you provided is an apple to oranges comparison as far as this new strain of H1N1 is concerned. I would advise against getting any vaccination in the next few months that would claim to combat this strain. There isn’t one available yet.
Also – you have to consider what happened with the first swine flu outbreak in 1976 when the Carter administration tried to do the same thing and push this out to millions without any clinical data – they innoculated over 45 million people before they had to shut it down because within days of the vaccination over 500 people had developed Guillan-Barre resulting in 25 deaths. After all was said and done – only 200 people across the country actually contracted that particular swine flu strain.
This current strain is very difficult to innoculate against and developing a vaccine is proving to be troublesome.
Reply to The BoBo
July 29th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Yeah I had absolutely no clue it had gotten that bad. I pretty much forgot about the Swine flu until I read this.
Reply to John Kaduk
July 29th, 2009 at 1:11 am
@John – just doing my part to keep it on people’s minds. It is expected there will be a second big outbreak between September and October which is going to significantly increase the numbers affected and the number of deaths. Pushing out a vaccine that has no clinical data to support its use could be even more harmful. This administration has no real plan and nobody is talking about it.
Reply to The BoBo
July 29th, 2009 at 1:40 am
This is very frightening! The worst I think is there is no cure. In Malaysia, 3 deaths have been reported due to Swine Flu. How do we even protect ourselves?
Reply to Nessa
July 29th, 2009 at 1:50 am
@Nessa – thanks for stopping in. I live in Florida – we have 23 deaths so far – the second most in the country. The CDC has put out some basic guidelines for the prevention – however, upon further review of these guidelines – they are no different than regular flu prevention guidelines – other than the suggestion to wear masks. You are right – this is scary and there is no apparent cure at this point in time or an effective means of prevention. I’m waiting to get the data from the state – but – I believe the majority of the deaths are among children and those who are already in an unhealthy condition. We’ll see.
Reply to The BoBo
July 29th, 2009 at 2:09 am
The Swine Flu is Obama’s “Katrina” | The BoBo Files…
The swine flu is growing out of control in the United States – why is the media not talking about the Obama administration’s lack of action or preparation?…
Reply to Vote on this article at blogengage.com
July 29th, 2009 at 4:04 am
I don’t think it is fair to compare one disastrous Presidency to another one. That’s about as nice to Obama as I could possibly be on this topic. Bush spent a lot of money and did not know what a veto was and now Obama is in charge and he is taking advantage of a crisis. Swine flu is something that the private sector can address, but Obama will find a way to complicate that. Obama’s biggest challenge is not getting universal health care, cap & trade, or creating jobs. His biggest challenge is making sure that the Federal Reserve remains opaque. Obama knows what is going with the Federal Reserve and he would never pass any bill to allow for the activities to be exposed. Obama knows that the U.S. Dollar is in severe danger, it has been inflated to disturbing levels and other countries want to dump the U.S. Dollar. If another major power dumps the U.S. Dollar as a reserve currency during his four years, it will cause a domino effect of epic proportions. Hyperinflation is our future and Obama is either trying to put off the inevitable or is doing a really bad job of trying to tackle the issue head on. When the system is exposed to the whole world for what it is and other countries act on it… that is Obama’s Waterloo.
Reply to The Capitalist
July 29th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Okay people, let’s get a grip. Certainly any flu is nothing to fool with but so far this particular flu has proven to be rather mild. In the midst of all the hysteria generated mostly due to misunderstandings over the use of the word pandemic (which relates solely to number of countries reporting the disease as opposed to number of cases) the fact that thousands of people die every year from flu was lost in the shuffle. To quote from a CBS News report: “The U.S. death toll surged fourfold from 16,263 in 1976-77 to 64,684 in
1998-99, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Flu
deaths now average about 36,000 a year, up from 20,000 in previous
estimates, the CDC said.”Developing flu vaccines is always a crap shoot and dealing with emerging pathogens is always a challenge, but I would like to think that the public health pros work just as hard no matter who is president..
Reply to Windroot
July 29th, 2009 at 10:39 am
We have a vaccine but apparently some strains of the H1N1 are not being affected. The Canadian pharmaceutical industry has an American order of over 250,000 units of the “might not work” vaccine.I never knew it was this bad and I’m very upset that the media hasn’t’ been saying these numbers.What a scam we have every right now how serious this is. The last I heard maybe 5000 people had it and now there saying these numbers.Where did I miss out on this news?
Reply to bbrian017
July 29th, 2009 at 11:53 am
@Windroot – I’m not entirely sure where you are getting your information. This comes directly from the CDC website regarding influenza mortality:
Mortality
Those numbers are from 2006 – which is the most recent available information. This strain of swine flu is nowhere near mild. It has already killed 302 Americans in a 4 month period. We haven’t even gotten to the real flu season yet and H1N1 is expected to hit hard when we do get in to the season.
Reply to The BoBo
July 29th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
He’ll just blame all the deaths on the fact that we don’t have a national health care plan. That’s what I think anyway. Have a terrific day.
Reply to Comedy Plus
July 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
You stated, “…why are we not blaming Obama and his
administration for this current outbreak and their total lack of
response and lack of foresight and preparedness?”There hasn’t been a total lack of response by the Obama administration. He keeps telling me to wash my hands and don’t come in to work when I’m coughing. Duh.I blame all the anti-science people. Western medicine isn’t advancing at a level it could be, other countries are catching up with us. But whatever, “God wills it,” as I’m told.
Reply to JenR
July 29th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Hey BoBo – not to put too fine a point on it but -
Just because you are unable to do the research to find out what is being done wrt H1N1 (swine) flu does not mean that nothing is being done.
What is it that you think is not being done?
What would you suggest the president do that is not being done?
(Would you rather I use ‘GrimJack’ or is it okay that I use my new handle?)
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
July 29th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
@Capitalist – I can see where you’re coming from. However, at the time Katrina hit – Bush also had a lot of other things on his plate as well – like GWOT in two locations, etc. The fact of the matter is that this also falls under disaster preparedness and the CDC falls under the DHS. These types of outbreaks are supposed to be anticipated and there should be stockpiles already. If Bush gets the blame for a natural disaster – then shouldn’t Obama as well?
@bbrian – yup – that’s the point. We heard daily about the death toll from Iraq and Katrina – yet – there is absolutely nothing in the media about the swine flu.
@JenR – that’s pretty funny.
@Grumpy – no, I know who you are – you don’t need to go back to the old handle. As for your notion that I didn’t do the research – I am in fact working on my dissertation on this subject. What the Obama administration is doing is not adequate. The point of this whole discussion is the fact that once again Obama is getting a pass and the media isn’t reporting on this at all. See my comments above to Capitalist.
1 – Preparedness – there were reports out in since 2008 stating that there is a potential that a new strain of H1N1, more virulent than previous strains, will be coming and there was on report in January that specifically stated there would be an outbreak beginning in March. Yet, with all this information at hand – the Obama administration did nothing. Had they been in preparedness mode – there would be vaccinations available.
2 – Prevention – sorry – but having the CDC issue guidance stating to take precautions similar to the regular flu virus isn’t cutting it.
3 – Analysis – The reason I’m doing my dissertation on H1N1 is because there hasn’t been any literature published regarding exactly how this virus is being passed and which segments of the population are most vulnerable. If there is analysis – it’s not being published or reported. Don’t you think we as Americans need to know exactly which segments of our population it is hitting the most so that preventive measures could be designed specifically to help them?
There has been a very lackluster response to this pandemic by our administration. As you can see by the numbers – this is not just your typical flu.
I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction. This is an issue that shouldn’t be buried by the main stream media or by the Obama administration.
Reply to The BoBo
July 30th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Seattle is one of the cities that is testing vaccinations – I have volunteered. Fortunately(?) the southern hemisphere is going into flu season now, so we will get an idea of what we will be facing. I am not sure what Obama himself can do nor what coming up with a vaccine too far in advance can do.
If they ramp up too soon, the strain could mutate away from the protection and don’t forget there could be ‘pandemic burn out’. I don’t want to duplicate all the research you are doing but it looks like one of the main problems I see is that there are no trustworthy production facilities here in the US – the Sanofi co. keeps getting dinged for sanitation problems. If we can’t produce the vaccines, how can we ensure that we can get a supply?
Anyway, keep us posted on what you discover.
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
July 30th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@Grumpy – taking a chance as a volunteer for an untested vaccine? Well, more power to ya! Good luck with that.Just remember to take in lots of fluids as it may reduce your immune system.
Regarding what Obama can do himself – you’re still missing the point – everyone blamed Bush personally for Katrina and the failures of the leaders of that state. Why should Obama not personally be blamed for this pandemic and no response in the U.S.? Also, thought you might like to know that Florida’s death toll is now up to 31 – up 8 from the time I reported this. Additionally, the CDC has for some reason decided that they will no longer be reporting the weekly number of confirmed cases reported and deaths. That chart up there is dated 7/24/09 – last Friday. That will be the last updated chart. I wonder why that might be?
I understand your concern regarding mutating away – however – since we don’t have one yet – and since no vaccine has been administered yet – a mutation won’t be happening any time soon. Regarding your concern regarding the American companies – I know what you mean. You’re probably also aware that we only have 2 licensed companies in the entire U.S. Not that we don’t have others capable – its just that the government has only licensed 2. Seems self-defeating to me if we can’t have more production facilities.
Reply to The BoBo
August 1st, 2009 at 4:09 am
@Bobo – I won’t get into Bush with you, that’s a dead horse but I was thinking about a seldom mentioned piece of the fiasco that was Katrina – the state Louisiana had contracted for a bunch of buses (somewhere between a hundred and 5hundred – I’m too lazy to look it up right now) to show up and haul people out if things got really bad. Well, things got really bad but the state governments in the surround states conscripted all the buses and drivers for their own problems. How is that related? As you noted above, we only have 2 plants licensed in the US (and as I stated they are both owned by the same company and can’t successfully pass sanitation inspections – there used to be 25 1988). Getting certified to make to manufacture vaccines is much stricter than for medication. There are all sorts of political and financial considerations that I have not sorted out yet. But this gets me to the correlation with buses during Katrina – if 90% of the world’s vaccine capacity is outside the US, how do we ensure an adequate supply? There is no profit motive because for about 50% less startup costs the profits for drugs are about 100 times greater (actually the figure I saw was $2billion yearly for vaccines bs $250billion for drugs. You have to build the facility before you know you have a product to sell. Most vaccines are produced for children.
Please excuse but this is just a rough draft – I haven’t dug deep enough to get all my thoughts organized (and, to be honest, what with my ADD – I will probably be onto another topic shortly).
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
@Grumpy – I searched and couldn’t find what you were talking about outside contracted buses. The only instance I recall regarding buses in New Orleans was that Mayor Negin was supposed to call in all the bus drivers and use all the public school buses for that purpose. What I recall is that he failed to do that. Literally hundreds of buses remained in the compound untouched. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9231926/
Regarding your statements on the vaccines and the manufacturing – you’re right about that. No arguments here – and – you remembered right.
Reply to The BoBo
August 7th, 2009 at 2:02 am
A quick google brings up a link to Soros so I am sure you don’t want to go there but there is here:
http://katrinacoverage.com/2005/10/23/more-fema-dot-buses.html
and here
http://www.correntewire.com/katrina_privatized_bus_contractor_screws_the_pooch_while_fema_turns_down_volunteers
or here
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=katrina+contracted+buses
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 7th, 2009 at 2:04 am
I just love lmgtfy – it’s kind of a geek dope-slap
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dopeslap
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 7th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
@Grumpy – that lmgtfy is pretty funny. Good one. However, what these articles fail to mention is that the governor failed to request federal assistance until three days AFTER Katrina hit.
I’m sure you know that FEMA was not allowed to act upon anything until the governor made the request. The 10th Amendment restricts the federal government from taking any kind of action until the state asks for it.
They also fail to mention that Mayor Nagin failed to implement the emergency disaster plan – and that is why all the school buses remained in the parking lots rather than put in use to evacuate its citizens.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005372.php
I had not heard anything about contract buses until you pointed it out. However, given the governor and the mayor’s lack of response and failure to request federal action in a timely manner, it’s no wonder the contract buses did show up – they were already requested and being used in Mississippi where that governor was on the ball.
Reply to The BoBo
August 10th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Well, let us look at that from a different point of view – the original declaration of national emergency was made on Friday August 26 – Landstar Express America Inc was given a no-bid contract for emergency hurrican services in 2002. Oddly enough, Landstar owns no trucks or buses. FEMA subcontracted emergency work to FAA who hired Landstar. So when Landestar got around to calling up folks to get buses, the bus companies contacted then called FEMA for verification and, lo and behold, FEMA had no answer as to whether or not Landstar was a responsible party.
They managed to get 80% of the population out of the city – what buses that they could get drivers for were used in the evacuation. I agree that Nagin did not do a particularly good job but FEMA failed completely; required complete documentation of each passenger that did get moved out; some buses sat over the weekend full of passengers until all the paperwork could be completed – most of the buses that actually managed to get people out were unable to make a 2nd trip.
It was a bad scene all around
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 10th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I loved it when I was able to use it on the guy who first used it on me. I expect that I will post from the gut and get it used on me shortly.
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 10th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
@Grumpy – I did read that article you sent me. I will agree with you that the whole FEMA/FAA/Landstar deal is a total clusterfuck. When all things are said and done – sure – there were things that could have been done better in the aftermath – but – blaming everything on the Bush administration is preposterous. This could all have been prevented if Louisiana and New Orleans Governors and Mayors past and present had heeded decades of warnings telling them they need to shore up the levees. The city should have been under a mandatory evacuation BEFORE the hurricane hit. Nagin failed in that respect by not implementing his Emergency Disaster Plan ahead of time knowing that Katrina was slated to be a big one.
Reply to The BoBo
August 11th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Maybe we should go back to the Army Corps of Engineers – they had express control of the levy system and were supposed to maintain them at specific levels. I find it less than comforting that a right-leaning conservative suddenly thinks that ‘mandatory’ anything by the government would be a good thing. How about mandatory rescue of the people in the arena? They were on tv for days before any support was sent in.
I know, I know – you and I disagree on government intervention depending on whether or not the particular government is conservative or liberal.
Your fear is “I’m from the government, I’m here to help”
Mine is “I’m a conservative, I’m here to help” (not the least because it probably wouldn’t happen). — Well, I’ll be doggoned – I just turned off NoScript and found all your extra tools. There are 40 different links that are required for this page to be fully functional – WOW.
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
@Grumpy – actually, it doesn’t matter to me whether it is a lib or conservative administration when it comes to natural disasters. It is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens from harm. In this case a mandatory evacuation would have been a good thing. I live in Florida so I understand that when a mandatory evac is called – it usually means that if I don’t leave I stand a good chance of dying. Had Nagin at least done that there might have been less lives lost.
As someone in health care and learning public health – I see the necessity for certain government interventions – not all – but some regarding the more serious threats to life. There is a difference between government intrusion and government intervention. In the case of Katrina I would have seen that as an intervention.
Re my tools and other stuff on the blog – amazing what happens when you open things up, huh?
Reply to The BoBo
August 17th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Yeah! Sometimes I just gotta learn to trust – sigh.zomg! you have strikethrough! Now you are stuck with me for a while.
hmm, I must have something else turned off
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 17th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Strikethrough – did that get it?
(edit)
Is it just me? I can’t get strikethrough to work??
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
August 18th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Strikethrough only works when you initially post. If you go back and edit you will have to manually do the strikethrough using code.
Reply to The BoBo
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
I just tweeted this
Reply to Matt Urdan
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
@Matt – thanks – much appreciated.
Reply to The BoBo
September 17th, 2009 at 3:46 am
I have been looking at the various things that the CDC has been up to along with completion of the vaccine tests (looks good enough that single-dose applications should work just fine). I never got called up for the vaccine tests but it was a long shot anyway.
I think that the manufacture of vaccines has moved away from using eggs and to using bacteria – this should speed up the process quite a bit – like from weeks to days. As you may have heard, they want to vax pregnant women (and other immuno-compromised folks) first, followed by kids and young adults.
What do you perceive as the possible problem with the coming swine flu season? What has your research dug up? B-T-B, another development that I ran across is that they might be able to use patches to give vaxes!! This means room temperature storage! Can you imagine the effect this will have on 3rd world vax programs.
er, you wouldn’t have pointers to your dissertation handy, would you?
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
September 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am
@Grumpy – first – thanks for the link to that Beck picture – I’m gonna use it. Pretty funny.
I heard that they will be starting vaccine testing here in Florida shortly as well. There are currently 24 different companies now working on a vaccine. While there are some out there that are using bacteria to culture and grow the vaccines – the majority at this time still are using eggs.
I’ll have to check out that patch thing…hadn’t heard about that one yet. You are right though – if they manage to find a way to use a patch as a containment and delivery system that could definitely be revolutionary.
As for my research thus far, I have been in contact with our state Bureau Chief of Epidemiology as well as our Director of Chronic Disease Surveillance and the Director of Information Dissemination. They are stating at this time that this strain of H1N1 is mild with low infectivity (although the CDC states it has an 18 – 20% secondary attack rate) and that it is not that virulent. I have refocused my hypothesis to be more specific to Florida as our death toll continues to rise on a daily basis. So far, all those who have died have either been minors or had an underlying medical condition. I’m hoping to get access to that data to find out what those conditions are to see if there isa common association. My hypothesis is that hispanic immigrants are disproportionately affected by the H1N1 in the state of Florida. Neither the state nor the CDC are tracking the spread any longer. They are strictly in surveillance mode and looking only at high risk subjects. If you look at the states that have the highest rates of death and cases you will see that it is California, Texas, and Florida. What he have in common are very large Mexican immigrant populations. I believe that these groups are not getting the prevention and intervention messages and are actually continuing to spread H1N1 throughout the states. I have other theories that go along with it – but that would take up a lot more space and would be too long for a comment.
Reply to The BoBo
September 21st, 2009 at 1:14 am
You probably have access to this data already but on the off-chance you do not:
http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/flu/downloads.html
The flu-tracker map was interesting.
Well, the high incidence of H1N1 in S.American immigrant populations could be due to their having missed 70s H1N1 thing which means there is not a reservoir of immunity in those populations (I have not actually looked so I am guessing).
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
September 21st, 2009 at 10:48 am
@Grumpy – thanks for that link.
If you recall, the 70′s “outbreak” of H1N1 was actually not an outbreak at all. Only one documented case of H1N1 was confirmed and that was the soldier who died in Fort Dix. The only other deaths “related” to H1N1 were all caused by the vaccination itself. We don’t have any immunity reservoir in the U.S. either as it relates to this strain. Now their predicting up to 1 million possible deaths in the U.S. alone.
Reply to The BoBo
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:46 am
H1N1 in the US has been sporadic but present throughout the 1900s – 1918 pandemic most spectacularly but there was a minor outbreak in the 50s (1947 to 1957) which left the adults immune when it returned in the 70s affecting mostly those below the age of 23 – the soldier died in 76 (I think) but the H1N1 returned in the late 70s – here is some tech stuff
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12418623?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed
but it is late and my ADD is acting up so here is the wiki version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1#Russian_flu
If I think about it, I will snoop around in the WHO data to see if I can find out about its affects in S. Am. C.Am (to be4 honest, it will probably be days later unless I keep getting killed in this game I am playing).
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 am
Oh, Oh – did you hear about the unintended consequences of the swine flu in Egypt? The killed all the pigs in the country which means this quaint little Coptic Sect that does all the recycling that include picking up the bio-waste for their pigs no longer pick it up and the entire country is like being overwhelmed by garbage
http://www.themajlis.org/2009/09/21/egypt-swine-flu-watch-garbage-edition
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
September 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Here is an interesting brochure for a swine flu conference – pretty standard stuff but the topics seem to have gotten under some skins.
You Decide.
Reply to Grumpy Old Man
September 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Oops – http://www.new-fields.com/ISFC/brochure.pdf
Reply to Grumpy Old Man