Every year we get a version of the flu making the rounds. But this one, the H1N1 Virus or "swine flu," is doing a fine job of scaring everyone.
Folks are taking unusual precautions. Hand sanitizer is flying off store shelves. You can go on YouTube and get crash courses on how to sneeze properly (do it in your sleeve). Bodily contact is out. Flu shots are in. And Barack Obama declared a national emergency last week.
This declaration allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebilius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help squash the flu bug, to limit its spread, or at least to help health care facilities install emergency plans. This also could expand the role of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, although it's a little early to tell what that would be.
One emergency plan already is drawing a bunch of flak. In New York, health care workers are required to take their flu shots, and many are bucking the trend and making a movement out of it. Some of the workers have been massing in the state capital of Albany, protesting the statewide edict that all health care workers be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, folks are preparing for the virus. That alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a hot commodity. Some churches are foregoing the brotherly hug in favor of a handshake or friendly nod. And people are wondering if there's enough flu vaccine to go around.
On the official level, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) are saying that whatever resources Obama needs to manage emergency response in the flu epidemic, he should have.
Despite all the buzz and dire predictions, H1N1 is showing itself to be all sizzle and no steak. Since April, "millions" have been infected in the United States, according to Centers For Disease Control (CDC) director Dr. Thomas Frieden. At least 20,000 were hospitalized and more than 1,000 died.
But then, according to the CDC (I got these numbers from the World Almanac), various influenza viruses will hospitalize 200,000 and kill about 36,000 people in the United States every year. That's every year.
Stacked up against these numbers, this begs the question: How much of H1N1 is hype, and how much is the real deal?
Depends on who you ask. The World Health Organization seems to be playing this on potential, and the flu pandemic of 1918 is held up as the ultimate. And, yeah, the 1918 "bird flu" was a heavy one. It started as something relatively mild, mutated into something deadlier, and ended up killing millions worldwide over two flu seasons.
But in 1918 we didn't have hand sanitizer. We didn't have climate control, which is a factor. And we didn't have all those good drugs we have now. Attempting to make a comparison is a weak reed to lean on.
I've never had a flu shot, and I don't intend to start now. But I am taking my own precautions. Things like washing my hands every so often. Taking Vitamin C. Eating well, getting exercise, all the standard stuff.
I'm not scared, and I'm not buying into the H1N1 hysteria either.
Folks are taking unusual precautions. Hand sanitizer is flying off store shelves. You can go on YouTube and get crash courses on how to sneeze properly (do it in your sleeve). Bodily contact is out. Flu shots are in. And Barack Obama declared a national emergency last week.
This declaration allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebilius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help squash the flu bug, to limit its spread, or at least to help health care facilities install emergency plans. This also could expand the role of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, although it's a little early to tell what that would be.
One emergency plan already is drawing a bunch of flak. In New York, health care workers are required to take their flu shots, and many are bucking the trend and making a movement out of it. Some of the workers have been massing in the state capital of Albany, protesting the statewide edict that all health care workers be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, folks are preparing for the virus. That alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a hot commodity. Some churches are foregoing the brotherly hug in favor of a handshake or friendly nod. And people are wondering if there's enough flu vaccine to go around.
On the official level, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) are saying that whatever resources Obama needs to manage emergency response in the flu epidemic, he should have.
Despite all the buzz and dire predictions, H1N1 is showing itself to be all sizzle and no steak. Since April, "millions" have been infected in the United States, according to Centers For Disease Control (CDC) director Dr. Thomas Frieden. At least 20,000 were hospitalized and more than 1,000 died.
But then, according to the CDC (I got these numbers from the World Almanac), various influenza viruses will hospitalize 200,000 and kill about 36,000 people in the United States every year. That's every year.
Stacked up against these numbers, this begs the question: How much of H1N1 is hype, and how much is the real deal?
Depends on who you ask. The World Health Organization seems to be playing this on potential, and the flu pandemic of 1918 is held up as the ultimate. And, yeah, the 1918 "bird flu" was a heavy one. It started as something relatively mild, mutated into something deadlier, and ended up killing millions worldwide over two flu seasons.
But in 1918 we didn't have hand sanitizer. We didn't have climate control, which is a factor. And we didn't have all those good drugs we have now. Attempting to make a comparison is a weak reed to lean on.
I've never had a flu shot, and I don't intend to start now. But I am taking my own precautions. Things like washing my hands every so often. Taking Vitamin C. Eating well, getting exercise, all the standard stuff.
I'm not scared, and I'm not buying into the H1N1 hysteria either.
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