Act One: The Story of Swine Flu and What It Feels Like to Be Sick With It
I want you.
I shall seek & find you.
I shall take u 2 bed & have my way with you.
I will make u ache, shake & sweat till u moan & groan.
I will make u beg 4 mercy.
I will exhaust u 2 the point that u will be relieved when I'm finished with you & you will be weak for days.
All my love, Swine Flu
--Anonymous Internet humor
Some worry nonstop about it. Others are in denial. Many simply don't know what to think. Even more joke about it and don't give it the respect it deserves. Swine flu is the Rodney Dangerfield of pandemics.
There is something diminutive about the swine flu "meme" or "brand" which leads otherwise sane people to consider dismissing it, resisting vaccination whenever it becomes available. My colleagues call it a "mild pandemic" -- an ironic oxymoron like "jumbo shrimp." In ten years as a professor of epidemiology, I never saw the word "mild" and "pandemic" in the same paragraph, let alone used in the way the adjective "mild" seems to take the fearsome edge off of the show-stopping noun "pandemic."
We don't even agree on its name. Pork industry lobbyists pressured the mighty U.S. Government to cease calling it "swine flu" so now government agencies call it by the more readily dismissed "Novel H1N1 Influenza." Bird flu is still bird flu. Mad cow is still mad cow. Monkeypox is still monkeypox. I guess the monkey, bird, and cow lobbies weren't as effective as pork, because they are still named after their primary animal hosts, while swine flu has been unceremoniously dismounted off its first ride like a neophyte equestrian. And those in the media who have not caved in to the pork lobby can't decide whether to hyphenate it (swine-flu), capitalize it (Swine Flu), or concatenate it (swineflu).
Medically, swine flu is, like monkeypox, bird flu and mad cow disease, something we call a "zoonosis" -- a disease, like rabies, which has an animal (swine, birds, cows, monkeys, bats, etc.) as its primary host and humans become accidental or secondary victims at least before the virus begins to spread human to human.
And swine flu is a virus, like other influenza diseases, or like measles, mumps, polio or smallpox. Can you imagine a faux love letter like the one above being written about smallpox? Compare Lord Macaulay's classic literary description of smallpox:
The smallpox was always present, filling the churchyards with
corpses, tormenting with constant fears all whom it had stricken,
leaving on those whose lives it spared the hideous traces of its
power, turning the babe into a changeling at which the mother
shuddered, and making the eyes and cheeks of the bighearted
maiden objects of horror to the lover.
-T.B. Macaulay
The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol IV
Somehow "swine flu" lacks a muse like Macaulay to conjure vivid images of its casualties -- and no Gabriel García Márquez has arisen to write a poignant homage the time of Swine Flu. Why? Probably because this pandemic is less a danger to the health of any specific individual than it is to the public health of the nation and the world; it is less a threat to any one person's individual well-being, and more to society as a whole. It has a low case-fatality rate, but it is the fastest spreading disease and will ultimately infect the greatest number of people in recorded history. So make no mistake, this pandemic has the potential -- although clearly not the certainty -- to wreck havoc on our community, our society, our hospitals, and our economy and even, only a bit farther fetched, our national security. Just think about this: if the "normal, seasonal, yearly" flu kills 35,000 Americans and between a quarter and half million people globally each year, how many may die if the "case-fatality rate" were the same, but the number of people who catch this disease increases by ten fold? Best estimates today: we should expect that 2 to 3 billion worldwide will contract swine flu; and about 100 million Americans will be sick from it, depending on when vaccine is available. These 100 million Americans will be sick for about a week each, losing half-billion days of work or school. And those half billion days won't be much fun at all, not at all.
Let me tell you about my own "dance" with swine flu, and then I will do an epidemiologist's primer on what makes a pandemic "mild," "moderate" or "severe" and third and lastly, let me address the pros and cons of getting yourself and your family vaccinated and what other steps you can take to stay healthy and safe.
Swine Bites Doc
"Epidemiologist gets swine flu" is not as catchy a news headline as "man bites dog" but it is cut from the same ironic cloth. And if the pandemic peaks before sufficient vaccine is available, it won't be news anymore: just based on random probability one third to one half of doctors, epidemiologists, senators, congressmen, Heads of State, football players and Fortune 500 CEOs, cops and robbers, plumbers and celebrities will also get swine flu. And while few will die, some will, and even more will go to the ER, or their doctor, and overwhelm a health care system which is broken and does not have sufficient "surge capacity" to handle a load like this. And this pattern, plus or minus a few months, plus or minus hospital capacity, respirators, and good clinical care, will occur all over the world.
I got sick a couple of days after I had agreed to write this post for Huffington Post, about two weeks ago. I do hope those two events were unrelated, needless to say.
You should not read too much into my own personal experience with the swine; yours will be different. But my swine flu was not a lovable affair, it was not a joke, and it was not "mild." I spent three nights of aches and pains, and chills and fever. My sheets were soaked with sweat and the sound of my teeth chattering kept me awake. I tried a hot bath in the middle of the night and was so weak I could hardly get out of tub unassisted. Although my temperature stayed below 102 degrees F, the teeth-chattering chills felt more like the two cases of malaria I had years ago in Asia than ordinary flu. I self-quarantined at home, drank lots of teas and sugar-free sports drinks to rehydrate, took ibuprofen for aches and fever and treated myself with the anti-viral drug oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu) and watched many, er, ah.... therapeutic movies and was still out of work for a week, and weak for days afterward. But while I was never sick enough to consider going to see my doctor or going to an ER, I would not wish this disease on anyone and I certainly would have preferred a vaccination to this teeth-rattling bug. Most poignantly, even though I tried to stay isolated, I infected one of my children who also spent a lousy sweat soaked teeth chattering week dancing with the swine. No loving parent would ever want to spread this disease to his or her kids. If the sole reason to get vaccinated were to prevent my spreading this disease to my family and community, that alone would make getting vaccinated an easy choice for me.
Coming soon on HuffPost: Act Two -- the epidemiology of swine flu and its public health consequences and Act Three -- a doctor's advice to good friends on how to stay healthy and safe during the pandemic.
Follow Larry Brilliant, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/larrybrilliant
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
Around 4 days ago; I felt like I was hit by a truck, with a knocked out exhaustion, dizziness , and headaches. I have completely recovered by drinking tons of water with non sugar electrolytes, vitamins and herbs.
But, if it was the flu, it is in no way mild but serious; if I did not have a strong immune system, I no doubt would of been hospitalized; I would of begged them to put me in.
Quote FDA, "There are no FDA cleared or approved tests that can identify the novel H1N1 flu virus"
www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/EmergencySituations/ucm161580.htm
Those scary images everyone sees of Electron Mircroscopic pictures of the cartoon character Swine Flu are nothing but ordingary magnification of regular celluar particals.
Swine Flu pandemic is a code word for global marketing of disease mongering. A virus which DOESN'T EXIST is being hyped to market and sell dangerous vaccinations, drugs and media ratings.
Anyone who can rise above the blind acceptance of pseudo events that the consumer circus ring masters of our economy orchestrate to manipulate the public to sell junk products must take the challange and answer one simple basic question - What is the scientific evidence that Swine Flu exists ?
And as far as fears about vaccines go, I think they're unfounded. Consider that the health professionals are the first ones to get these vaccines. Don't you think these "insiders" would know best if the vaccines were dangerous?
I for one will not work as a nurse until they get these things straightened out...I am not going to risk my sweet bippy for MRSA, VRE, Hepatitis and HIV, let alone these poisonous immunizations.... The mercury (thiomersal) has been banned from ANIMAL Vaccinations since 1992, but we are giving it to our pregnant mothers and infants.....
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/596476
The results and data from all of the studies show that the is no correlation between vaccines and any kind of disease or neurological condition.
Have some pharmaceutical companies mislead the public? Yes. Do all pharmaceutical companies mislead the public? Of course not. There is a multitude of scientific research that goes on without any input from pharmaceutical companies. Is it all false?
Yesterday,I saw on CNN that resistance is forming.
New York state was first to mandate the flu shot & the health care workers were first to protest.
They didn't state numbers but from what it looked like, it was impressive.
They played Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" in the background & even told about all the deaths from the vaccine back in 1976.
CNN added a lot of hype, though, in opposition to the nurses & other medical professionals protesting by giving platform to the lying shills like the CDC director, the State directer & others who added rhetoric & propaganda but their message will be seen through for what it is by those paying attention.
I never imagined it would be the medical professionals themselves helping us but they are coming out in big numbers,thank goodness.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-frank-lipman/swine-flu-what-to-do_b_286245.html?show_comment_id=31985501#comment_31985501
In the months to come I will be keeping it in mind and hoping, for myown sake and for the sake of my aged parent for whom I am caregiving, that we are spared the worst of it and will look forward to your perspectives again. cheers.
Glad you are feeling better.
We liberals need to stay healthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXSB2oca7f8
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=647%3Alen-horowitz-files-pandemic-charges-against-rockefeller&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=64&lang=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzC7dmyKG4E
Leaked UN report claims swine flu could "kill millions" and cause "anarchy" in poor nations
http://www.naturalnews.com/027070_medicine_vaccines_anti-viral.html
Baxter Vaccines Serial Killer Boyden Gray
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16503793/Baxter-Vaccines-Serial-Killer-Boyden-Gray1
Flyer - campaign against Baxter vaccines
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17184016/Flyer-campaign-against-Baxter-vaccines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXSB2oca7f8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PelTWCUmTsU
The success of the vaccination program has largely stopped diseases that not long ago were routinely debilitating and ending lives. These diseases didn't disappear on their own nor have they gone away. They were beaten down and (are being) controlled by vaccines. "Herd immunity" is responsible. What do you think will start to occur if larger numbers of people become complacent and resistant to being vaccinated? Here's what. You'll see larger numbers of people becoming sick from diseases common in times past.
I implore you to Google "Dana McCaffery, Australia" for a heart breaking story of what happens when this "herd immunity" effect is curtailed, due to less people being vaccinated against a preventable disease, and see for yourself what the consequences of a decision by the singular "I" does to the collective "WE." The preventable disease of whooping cough was given a chance to do its damage to a young child's life, with predictable result. Don't let this unnecessary tragedy happen to someone you love or know. For the benefit and good health of all, vaccinate in a timely fashion against preventable diseases.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/whooping_cough_lies.html
Don't forget blood letting went on for hundreds of years before people wised up to the uselessness & danger to it.
Here we are again making the same mistakes, only this time it's vaccinations we need wise up to.
As for the polio people are discussing & harping on further back in this thread.
Did you know that FDR was probably stricken with Guillain-Barré syndrome, which was more likely than not, due to vaccinations in the first place?
Study raises doubts about FDR's polio;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-30-fdr-usat_x.htm?csp=19_wxia
"The disease that struck Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the prime of his life may not have been polio, as his doctors and history have believed. An analysis out Friday suggests that Roosevelt, whose work on behalf of polio patients gave rise to the March of Dimes, instead may have had Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a disease barely known by doctors of the day"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain-Barre
Vaccines have saved more lives than almost any other health care advance aside from public sanitation.
By spreading this kind of misinformation you put lives at risk, and you should be quarantined.
Folks, follow the science, not the lies of the "vaccine deniers" (akin to the Holocaust deniers in that they rely upon oft-repeated misinformation in hopes that the lies will stick, and that they have their own little private world of self-referential "proof" to fall back on, which they never leave to see reality).
Vaccines are not without risks, but they are still the single best, cheapest, safest way to prevent the spread of many infectious diseases that we have available to us.
When the vaccine is available: GET VACCINATED.
When the H1N1 is available to you, folks, GET VACCINATED.
twenty-first century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds
of space.
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope
studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered
the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds
immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and
surely, they drew their plans against us.” (HGW)
Until, that is, they found out about swine flu?