Flu Pandemic Statistics

[Zander]

Selling the Flu Vaccine is BIG business - 24 Billion per year. With a good hyped scare like "the swine flu" that number will double. Sorry, I ain't buyin'. No flu shot for me, ever.

 

[AllieBaba]

2 kids have died in Umatilla County of H1N1, if I understood the news this morning correctly. And I don't think the immunization has even arrived there yet. I know it hasn't gotten here.

 

[AllieBaba]

Selling the Flu Vaccine is BIG business - 24 Billion per year. With a good hyped scare like "the swine flu" that number will double. Sorry, I ain't buyin'. No flu shot for me, ever.

Unless you're aged, pregnant, young, or have a compromised immune system, you're relatively safe. It's just a nasty flu.

It's the kids who die from it.

 

[AllieBaba]

I went to a training with a CDC rep and health clinic workers, who had just spent a very harrowing few weeks trying to control an outbreak at a camp in Antelope.

They were extremely jittery, very concerned, and wired. It had nothing to do with any hype or money. It had to do with being horrified by what they saw, how quickly it spread, how sick the kids became (and how quickly they became very ill) and how hard it was to get under control.

 

[Zander]

Selling the Flu Vaccine is BIG business - 24 Billion per year. With a good hyped scare like "the swine flu" that number will double. Sorry, I ain't buyin'. No flu shot for me, ever.

Unless you're aged, pregnant, young, or have a compromised immune system, you're relatively safe. It's just a nasty flu.

It's the kids who die from it.

The media feeding frenzy is what disturbs me. The "regular" flu has killed 100x as many people this year, yet we are all supposed to scared of the great "pandemic" that has yet to arrive. Call me a skeptic, this stinks of manufactured fear.

 

[random3434]

I usually don't status-drop, but I work in Microbiology for a living, and have a graduate-level background in Virology. H1N1 kills through (hypothetically) inducing an auto-immune response that rapidly liquefies the victim's lungs, very much like the Spanish Flu. Why this is still an untested theory, doctors have directly observed the destruction of patients' lungs by H1N1, particularly in young adults.

This theory explains why it mostly kills young people; the stronger your immune system, the more likely you are to have a fatal auto-immune response.

Thankfully, this only occurs in approximately 1% of the infected, and those people can be saved if put into a ventilator in time (thus all the hospitalizations). The problem is, 1% of the US population is 3 million people, and we don't have 3 million ventilators.

Seasonal flu does NOT have the ability to liquefy the lungs, which is why this H1N1 is a more serious threat.

Don't be fooled: swine flu still poses a deadly threat - health - 08 September 2009 - New Scientist

Swine flu has still not grown more severe, as many feared it would but as the pandemic's second, autumn wave begins in the northern hemisphere, the virus is posing a different threat. While H1N1 mostly causes mild disease, some people – estimates suggest fewer than 1 per cent – become deathly ill, very fast.

At a meeting last week in Winnipeg, Canada, experts warned that these cases could overwhelm hospitals. "These were the sickest people I've ever seen," says Anand Kumar, an intensive care expert at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Let's see, who should I listen to for facts:


Someone who works in Microbiology for a living, or those who think the media is over hyping this flu because of some conspiracy.

 

[auditor0007]

Why do the nutters not believe statistics from the CDC?

Does being a wingnut somehow make you think there is not a flu epidemic in our country?


We had 3 schools closed in our district last week because of it, it's just spreading like wildfire here.

And that is the problem with highly contagious viruses. Here, only a couple of kids have had it, but once a few get it, it can spread like wildfire. If you happen to live in an area that has not been affected greatly, it is easy to believe that this is nothing. However, we are seeing spots here and there where they are having trouble controlling the outbreaks.

As for those who want to deny everything, they believe everything is a conspiracy.

 

[Valerie]

Selling the Flu Vaccine is BIG business - 24 Billion per year. With a good hyped scare like "the swine flu" that number will double. Sorry, I ain't buyin'. No flu shot for me, ever.

Unless you're aged, pregnant, young, or have a compromised immune system, you're relatively safe. It's just a nasty flu.

It's the kids who die from it.

Yes, that's what makes it much different.

New info shows swine flu still hardest on young

By MIKE STOBBE (AP) – 5 hours ago



Many people 55 and older have some degree of immunity to the swine flu virus, perhaps from exposure decades ago to a similar virus or vaccine. But the ability of the swine flu virus to attack deep in the lungs seems to also make it more dangerous to some of the younger people who are infected, CDC officials say.

The Associated Press: New info shows swine flu still hardest on young

It showed more than half of all hospitalizations were people 24 and younger; more than a quarter were ages 5 to 18 years.

"Essentially, this is still a young person's disease," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Swine flu deaths were concentrated in young and middle-aged adults.

Only 12 percent of deaths occurred in elderly. That's a stark contrast to the roughly 90 percent of deaths in the elderly from seasonal flu, Schuchat said at a Tuesday press conference.

"It's almost completely reversed," said Schuchat, who heads the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

 

[AllieBaba]

Fiddlesticks. Flu is always dangerous, this is true. However most people have at least some immunity against them. New strains (or mutated ones) are scary.

 

[auditor0007]

I am simply asking what schools were closed due to swine flu...

I know a few that closed with a small handful of confirmed cases and then kids getting pulled by parents from school out of fear - but not because of an overwhelming number of actual confirmed cases of swine flu.

Even now my school is an infected cesspool of hacking and throwing up,,,,,the parents here send to school unless they are almost zombies.

It is an epidemic.

That is no different than any other flu season.

I can recall two or three years where illness swept across campus and decimated the student and faculty populations. No biggie, just flu season.

The only difference this flu season is the hysteria.


And I still would like to know what major public schools have closed specifically due to confirmed cases of swine flu...

It is very different from normal flu seasons because this flu is killing quite a few kids. We know the threat of normal flu to the elderly, but those flus do not kill very many of our kids. This one has proven that it does, and that is why there is so much concern. You must not have kids.

 

[AllieBaba]

Too late.

My kids and I all got our regular flu shots last week. As soon as the H1N1 immunization is here, the kids are getting it.

 

[Emma]

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- How much could Donald Rumsfeld make from this swine flu panic, anyway?

I put a call into his office, but the former Secretary of Defense doesn't want to comment. (His staff says Rummy is hard at work on his memoirs. Ominous news for the GOP: The book is penciled in to hit the bookstores next fall -- just around the time of the mid-term elections).

Rumsfeld is the highest profile figure associated with Gilead Sciences Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!gild/quotes/nls/gild (GILD 45.10, -1.02, -2.21%) , the California biopharma behind the Tamiflu vaccine. He is the company's former chairman, and at the last disclosure a few years back still held a stake in the company worth somewhere up to $25 million.


Everyone and their aunt will probably be crowding into emergency rooms at the first sign of a runny nose this winter, demanding treatments, regardless of any effectiveness.

One thing we know for certain: Flu times are good times at Gilead. No stockholders anywhere stand to make as much from flu panic.

"The biggest beneficiary to the world's dilemma with the H1N1 virus is Gilead Sciences," says a report from research firm BWS Financial, Inc. Gilead will be in a sweet spot if swine flu turns into mass panic, it says. "We believe (Gilead) remains the true investment on the H1N1 theme."

Gilead licensed its Tamiflu vaccine to pharmaceutical giant Roche back in 1996, but gets lucrative royalties on sales. Gilead's revenue from Tamiflu came to about $400 million during the bird flu panic in 2006-2007, BWS estimates.

An analysis by Deutsche Bank predicts Gilead will get about $195 million revenue from Tamiflu just in the fourth quarter of this year, and another $137 million in the first quarter of next year. Deutsche argues that Wall Street has so far underestimated the likely gains. (Deutsche's analysis is based on results from Roche, which has just reported its third quarter figures. Gilead gets its cut from Roche's sales one quarter later.)

Tamiflu is only one part of the business. Gilead is a broad biotech company. But Wall Street loves a story, and if the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, causes a stampede this winter Gilead could get a lot of attention.

The irony about flu vaccines is that they may not even work. A very plausible takedown on the flu vaccine business was published recently in The Atlantic. Read here. But don't expect that to hurt demand. Everyone and their aunt will probably be crowding into emergency rooms at the first sign of a runny nose this winter, demanding treatments, regardless of any effectiveness.

In the so-called home of the brave, the easiest thing to sell is fear.

Gilead stock was only about $16 four years ago. But in 2005 it took off, after the Bush administration responded to the bird flu panic by ordering large quantities of Tamiflu. It has since tripled to about $46.

On the advice of government counsel at the time, Mr. Rumsfeld recused himself from all decisions about Tamiflu and pandemic preparedness. But the rules should really forbid him, or any Secretary of Defense, from owning shares directly at all.

Gilead's booming stock price has generated a lot of windfalls at the company. According to the most recent public filings, executives and staff are sitting on share and option awards that may be worth about $1.6 billion at current levels. That would be, remarkably, an average of $400,000 per person for the 4,000-employee firm, although of course the benefits are hardly distributed equally. Chairman and Chief Executive John Martin made $11 million a year in each of the last two years, and booked a personal profit of $28.5 million by exercising stock options just in 2008.

The Tamiflu connection is proving good news for left-wing conspiracy theorists. In his last financial disclosure as defense secretary, more than two years ago, Donald Rumsfeld revealed he still owned a stake in Gilead worth somewhere between $5 million and $25 million. Since then Gilead shares have risen by nearly a half. Of course, we don't know what -- if anything -- he holds now.

Is it too late to get in on the action? Maybe. Gilead shares, at around $46, look pretty reasonably priced at 17 times next year's forecast earnings. But call options offer a leveraged bet on further swine flu hysteria: For $3 a share you can buy a $50 call good at any point between now and next May.



Look who's profiting from the flu pandemic - MarketWatch

Donald Rumsfeld and others appreciate your support!

Tamiflu is not a vaccine it's anti viral medication.



That means some ignoramus wrote that article!

TAMIFLU for Flu Treatment and Flu Prevention | TAMIFLU

Damn. That's what I get for scrolling past his bullshit LOL

 

[eagleseven]

Unless you're aged, pregnant, young, or have a compromised immune system, you're relatively safe.

No.

H1N1 is most fatal to those with the strongest immune system (young adults and teens), as it turns the immune system against the body.

Please stop propagating misleading information. Thank you.


I am happy to hear that you are getting the H1N1 shot. I'm not getting the seasonal flu shot, but I am getting the H1N1 shot, as I am in the at-risk demographic (young adults).

 

[AllieBaba]

No, I'm not getting H1N1 immunization, I already had that particularly fine version of the flu. It was lovely.

Everything I've read said those with compromised immune systems are at risk, if I'm wrong, no worries. I didn't, however, say it was more fatal to that population than to youngsters. I've said over and over kids are the ones most at risk. My kids are getting the immunization. Because the kids are the ones dying.

 

[Emma]

Unless you're aged, pregnant, young, or have a compromised immune system, you're relatively safe.

No.

H1N1 is most fatal to those with the strongest immune system (young adults and teens), as it turns the immune system against the body.

Please stop propagating misleading information. Thank you.


I am happy to hear that you are getting the H1N1 shot. I'm not getting the seasonal flu shot, but I am getting the H1N1 shot, as I am in the at-risk demographic (young adults).

I think what she is saying is that they are among those at high risk for complications (not necessarily fatal). The order of those at risk is flipped somewhat from what it is for the usual seasonal flu, but I don't think that means those with chronic illnesses or compromised immunity aren't.

 

[eagleseven]

No, I'm not getting H1N1 immunization, I already had that particularly fine version of the flu. It was lovely.

At least now you have immunity...and you didn't pass it on to your kids. That's quite lucky.

Everything I've read said those with compromised immune systems are at risk, if I'm wrong, no worries. I didn't, however, say it was more fatal to that population than to youngsters. I've said over and over kids are the ones most at risk. My kids are getting the immunization. Because the kids are the ones dying.

It's not your fault...the media has always been notoriously bad at reporting scientific and medical information. I just get annoyed at all the bad news reports, when accurate information is available, if a reporter would just check primary sources.

I didn't mean to be harsh...Sinatra is just grating on my nerves tonight. This is no issue to be partisan/conspiratorial about.

 

[AllieBaba]

I was lucky...my daughter was out of town, visiting her older brother and his family. My younger boy was stuck home with me, we were drinking from the same cups, sleeping in the same bed, because I was just to frigging sick to think straight or stay upright enough to take care of him properly.

 

[Old Rocks]

That is Sinatra's sole reason for being, to grate on the nerves of his betters

 

[Emma]

I was lucky...my daughter was out of town, visiting her older brother and his family. My younger boy was stuck home with me, we were drinking from the same cups, sleeping in the same bed, because I was just to frigging sick to think straight or stay upright enough to take care of him properly.

We sent my grandson off to his other grandma's for the week. I've not been confirmed to have H1N1, so I'll still be getting the vaccine just in case. Considering my exposure to patients and co-workers who were diagnosed with it, and that I'd been vaccinated a month ago for the seasonal flu, they're going on the assumption I have it too. I hope I do. I'd hate to think after going through all of this I'd get it later on. That would be a bitch.

I'll probably have to get the vaccine at my doc's rather than the hospital. The hospital has already run out, and they haven't finished vaccinating those who work with the highest risk patients (L/D, Peds, ER).

 

[Shorebreak]

I don't give a damn if you nutters want to believe that this is all hype and some big conspiracy, and refuse to get vaccinated or even believe the illness is widespread. But your lack of sense is putting the rest of us at risk, and will therefore make this epidemic just that much worse.

If you choose not to get the vaccine, fine. Just stay the hell away from me and mine, thanks.

This is a completely senseless post.

If you've been vaccinated, why are you worried about being around people who haven't been vaccinated? Either way you're safe, right?

So either you're safe from us nutters and have nothing to worry about ...or you don't believe the vaccine works.

Which one is it?