36,000 Americans die each year from flu.

[LuckyLib]

Let's get some perspective here.

[cosmik debris]

1. Nope, perspective is for wimps.

Panic is the real solution!

Get started right away!

[JuniperLea]

3. If panic means people are washing their hands...

And using a tissue, I'm all for panic.

I'm not seeing panic, no matter how much the word is bandied around. I am seeing a lot of talk about prevention, and that is a good thing.

[Maru Kitteh]

25. 2 months from now they'll be the same disgusting slobs they were last month

and the boring old regular flu will continue to kill.

[kestrel91316]

11. I haven't seen any panic. People have a need for facts, and

are seeking them out.

Your post and your attitude are not helpful.

[JuniperLea]

2. With the numbers almost doubling daily...

We'll be there soon.

[Hannah Bell]

4. the numbers of confirmed deaths aren't "doubling daily".

nowhere near.

every case in the US so far = "mild".

[JuniperLea]

5. I'm talking confirmed cases...

You are talking deaths.

We have two possible deaths in LA County today. We had 20 known cases yesterday; we have 40 confirmed cases today. We had two states involved yesterday, we have six today. Well, that blows my theory right there.

[xchrom]

6. stop talking sense -- or they'll label you part of the

'DU panic mongers'.

any epidemic like this is a bad thing.

[JuniperLea]

17. You got that right

I'm a little more than tired of people seeing "panic" at every turn... when all I'm seeing is people sharing information and thinking in terms of caution. Since when is erring on the side of caution a bad thing?

I just don't get it.

[xchrom]

23. considering the community i come from -- talk about

roving viruses makes me pay attention.

i've lost friends to 'mild' this or that.

i'm not so interested losing more.

[JuniperLea]

27. I'm not technically in that community, but I'm in the same boat so to speak...

I've lost several friends to virus that some in society chose to ignore. My panic is silent for the most part, but the adrenalin runs free and wild on the inside when I hear about this sort of thing. The 80's was more than bad hair; the test results sucked too.

I'll be as afraid of this as I damn well please, and I'm really beginning to resent the InterTube Nannies telling me how to feel.

[xchrom]

28. and we should be resentful --

and i don't mind at all if i come across like a Cross and Bitter Q ueen when it comes to this shit.

public health-- could anything be more important?

might as well pack it all in if it isn't.

[JuniperLea]

31. We're all expendable pawns

No question.


I support our mutual outrage.

[Hannah Bell]

10. Flu ruled out in those deaths this am. They didn't have the flu.

US confirmed cases 40 yesterday, 64 (from memory) this am.

No deaths: all US cases thus far described as "mild" by CDC/WHO.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. That sounds like the combined P&I (Pnuemonia and Influenza) rate

Last year, it was about 60,000, but positively-diagnosed influenza accounted for about 300.

Does anyone have better numbers/references?

--d!

[sam sarrha]

13. the death rate here/there could be that they have a flu/Pneumonia dual infection.. and we dont yet

and TB/respiratory problems, TB is endemic in the poor there. poverty 's a bitch..

hospitals for the poor there are terrible.. and a tiered system.

[sam sarrha]

21. here is a a possable explanation of the death rate.. very interesting>link>>

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-04-28-voa26.cfm

Moskowitz says the high immune response is caused by what's called a cytokine storm, a "tremendous outpouring of cytokines, of factors released by white cells that get other white cells really jazzed up." He says, "It's these white cells…that basically…turn the lung into a totally cellular organ like a liver, so it can't exchange gas anymore."

[HereSince1628]

8. Yes, over a year, an entire year. It's early days, no reason to commit one way or the other

at this point with regards to the virulence of this flu.

It could be nothing. It could be something. Let's allow at least another 2 weeks to see if it has burned itself out.

[TexasObserver]

9. Yep. 3000 a month. That's 100 a day.

But someone has vaccine to sell, and someone else has prescription drugs to sell on TV.

[sam sarrha]

12. Tobacco kills 1200 day.. 1080 were addicted as CHILDREN, 540 of em 12 years old and UNDER..

smokers have no cilia in their respiratory system to clean out the Phlem.. and they drown in their own snot. how many of the 100 a day flu deaths were smokers, does it skew the statistics..??

[TexasObserver]

16. Hospital infections from unsanitary practices kills 300 a day.

As for the flu and the smokers, who knows? That's probably a contributing factor in some of those deaths. Even so, the overreaction to the swine flu is far from justified.

[sam sarrha]

20. YAKYAKYAKYAKYAK.. still at it, i only see discussion, maybe you are the one over reacting...

[TexasObserver]

22. Calm down. It's just a discussion.

[Winterblues]

14. More than ten times that die from tobacco but we must spend on "war on terror"

When is this country ever going to get it's priorities in order???

[Pavulon]

15. North of 100K from medical errors...

working 26 hour shifts has its drawbacks. This story has lots of drama, still lacking fact.

[Xithras]

18. The difference is the viruses target.

This is going to sound horrible, but here it is: We all die, but some of us hang on until we're old and frail and have little or no immune system yet. When that happens, the length of our remaining lifespan is often directly dependent on our ability to avoid infections. The vast majority of those 36,000 yearly deaths are the elderly, diseased, or otherwise infirm who simply have no ability to fight off ANY serious infection of ANY type. They officially died of the flue, but could have just as easily caught and perished because of any of dozens of other infections. The flue simply got them because it's more common.

Annual flu death rates among young, healthy adults are exceedingly low.

The threat with the swine flu is simply that it may target healthier and younger people who would otherwise not have to worry about dying of the flu. We sort of "understand" that diseases like the flu can kill the elderly, but we freak out at the possibility of a virulent disease that can kill ANYONE.

[demokatgurrl]

30. Not trying to be argumentative but where is the basis

for "it may target healthier and younger people who would otherwise not have to worry about dying of the flu"? If younger people have died in Mexico, it could be because of poor health care and sanitation in general and very close quarters. The one death in the US was a child from Mexico. There are people now in Canada and the UK, aside from the US who have it. Let's see how they fare before we jump to conclusions.

I see this as a flu, period. There's no vaccine, but how often do they make the WRONG vaccine? It's a guessing game every year.

[hedgehog]

19. Yeah, let's wait until this flu is in all 50 states and is killing a couple hundred

young, healthy people a day before we do anything.

[PhatBrett]

24. You are wrong

Read this and you will find out why this flu is dangerous:
http://www.amazon.com/Fields-Virology-set-David-Knipe/dp/0781760607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240983658&sr=1-1

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Welcome to DU

and as I pointed in another thread I started about this

Yep, 35,000 die each year, they are usually the old, the very young and immuno suppressed

A little factoid they love to ignore

[demokatgurrl]

29. K& R for a little perspective and reason. n/t