Flu Epidemic

Well just wondering if anyone has fought this Flu thats going around,,I have a
dear friend that was a bartender at a local hangout of ours that died yesterday they are saying cause of the Flu- and it was quite a shock...I am one of few in our family that doesn't believe in getting a shot every year and so far I haven't had a bout with it yet..I don't know but if ya can please say a prayer for her..

Gongoman

 

A 17 year old girl just died of the flu here in Mn, she had received the flu shot.

People are getting fired in certain places for not getting the shot, yet people who received it are dying all over. . I stopped getting the shot after the H1n1 hoax.

 

I've read that this year's shot is about 60% effective against the flu out there this year. They can only target three strains at a time, and they use past viruses to make their best guess of what strains will be the bad ones each year in August. My work requires us to get the flu shot (or mist) and while we've all been vaccinated, a lot of people have fallen ill with it.
Its definitely no joke, and I hope anyone who catches it will heed the advice of their local medical professional! Of course, the best cure is prevention....which means washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with warm water and soap (not sanitizer!) and coughing into your elbow.

Dr. Skadoo signing off! :evillaugh

disclaimer: I am not a real doctor. Nor do I play one on TV.

 

Yes good advice on washing,,,My 2 sisters are nurses and Hospital they are at..All beds are full with mostly Flu cases,,,Amazing

 

This is the first year in about 5 that I haven't gotten a flu shot nor have my kids had theirs yet. I was very, very ill all last week. I started with a horrible headache New Year's Eve with no partying. Then came the body aches, horrible sore throat, fever of 101-102, vomiting, chest pain and coughing. I feel pretty good now, but I've had no voice for 5 days. The coughing and body aches and chest pain are absolutely horrible. I literally thought I was going to have to be admitted to the hospital because I was so sick I could barely move. It's truly horrible. My friends and family kept calling and I told them all to stay away.

Luckily my kids didn't get it so bad and have already mostly recovered. My husband has escaped it so far.

It's the 12th and I'm still coughing but all other symptoms are finally gone. I can see how this flu can easily kill people, especially the elderly or people who have compromised health already.

 

The flu is no joke but the flu industry is, the shot is 60% effective, but the catch is that some years the strains out there are different than the the ones the shot protects against, thus it would be zero % effective. Flu shots cost less than a buck to mfg, yet they charge $30 to get it most places(either directly or through ins).
It's a self perpetuating , money making industry that is unrelated to public health IMO.

 

Should I be wearing a mask, safety googles, and gloves on the plane? Or would the TSA be perp walking me off?

Hope the grandkids don't come over before I leave!

 

I hope its not Cap'n Tripps!!

 

Gongoman I am sorry about your friend, I do hope you get your flu shot.

The 1918 flu killed more people than WWI, or the bubonic plague. Estimates put the death toll around 50 million people world wide. 25% of the US population was affected by that flu & it drove down life expediency by 12 years.

There are a number of factors that can adversely affect the efficacy of this years flu vaccine and other vaccines but the fact is vaccines work. Before the eradication of small pox by world wide vaccination upwards of 500 million people died in the 20th century alone from small pox. Small pox killed more people than every war combined.

60% efficacy isn't ideal but if 6 out of 10 people are protected then your herd immunity also rises - giving more chance for protection to those the most vulnerable. What is different this year is it's not just the young & the old dying from the flu this is a particularly virulent flu.

And make no mistake - there is big bucks in the anti-vaccine business, hundreds of millions of dollars donated to these fake tax-payer funded "charities" run by executives who make salaries deep in the six figures or more whose sole purpose is to frighten you.

My family doesn't get the flu vaccine every year - we are very healthy but this year after reading the CDC reports everyone got the shot in November.

 

I keep getting colds and it is keeping me from getting a shot. Hopefully this one will ease up soon and I can get it done.

 

If it is at least we all know to head to Vegas.

 

I'm sorry about your friend. I don't get the flu season anymore because I react too badly to it. I have immune system issues and a lot of allergies. I've only reacted to 2 immunizations; hepatitis and the flu vaccine. For several years I kept having the shot because I figured a few bad days were better than getting the flu. When it got as bad or worse than having the flu my doctor and I agreed to stop getting it.

I try to take good care of myself; eating right, taking my vitamins, walking 3 X a week. And I take precautions that I call my Howard Hughes protocols. I have a doctor's appt next week and I will wait outside the waiting room, not touch anything and if anybody looks like they're hacking up a cat I'm not above putting on a mask. They sell masks at the dollar store. In Japan it's just good manners to wear one if you're sick. Pretend you're from Japan. Anybody looks at you weird, it's their problem. They're probably jealous they didn't think of it.

Incidentally, I stopped getting colds when I took my mother's advice and started taking a straight shot of hard liquor at bedtime from October 1st to May 1st. The only time I got colds was when I was on medication that I prevented me from drinking. Make sure to hit everything on the way down so it kills all the germs. Non diluted. Straight. Wine or beer will not do the same job. Then I brush my teeth, gargle with plain old Listerine and go to bed. Before anti-biotics and fancy medicines all people had were smelly home remedies, fish oil (also smelly) and booze. My family doctor started doing this because he was getting sick all the time and he hasn't had as many colds. He's a wine drinker and doesn't like hard liquor. Hey, you don't have to like it. You just have to drink it.

 

Unfortunately that opinion is wrong. A single dose costs the manufacturers like Sanofi and Novartis much more than a buck - the tax alone is almost a buck. Contract pricing through the feds is ballpark $7-10 per dose with about 50% increases into the private sector.

You can get the vaccine free if you look for it and easily much less than $30.

Don't forget you have to pay all costs involved - not just the cost to make the vaccine and put it in a vial. Goes a long way from the factory floor to your deltoid.

 

I can get it for free(to me but not in reality), I have ins, that's not my point, The mfg cost may be more than a buck, but only a little, likely under $2 a dose. Any other product made/grown or produced, for $2 would be priced at $3 or $4, $5 tops. The health industry thinks markups of 1000% are reasonable, it's not. Imagine if Ford would price their cars at 150k(they cost 18k to build and might be sold at 20), would that be reasonable just because "there's alot involved in making, shipping and maintaining them"?

They could produce flu vaccines that would last for many years, but they dont want to, they say it would be a lot of work and would require big changes...I guess that's not a priority, not when they can scare people into thinking you're taking a big risk if you dont get a shot that they admit hardly works, and can get the govt and insurance co's to pay for 120 million doses each and every year.

By the way, these same co's sell flu vaccine worldwide, check out what they charge "poor" countries, it's next to nothing. They dont lose money on those sales.

 

It's definitely bad here in New Mexico. Two flu strains and a separate intestinal Norovirus are widespread. Some urgent cares here are quarantining flu patients into separate waiting rooms.

The last flu I had I was on my back for two weeks. The shots are free for me with insurance. From a cost / benefit standpoint the decision was a fairly simple one for me.

 

Merlin-
Actually every year scientists analyze the circulating influenza virus' looking for antigenic characterization data - because the flu tends to change yearly. You can read more about the analysis here:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivitysurv.htm

If we had the flu vaccine in 1918 and the efficacy rate were the same as this years shot a minimum of 30 million people would not have died, and actually far more due to herd immunity. How much is that worth?

People find disparaging vaccines easy because they don't tangibly understand the death toll from vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) including the flu.

Lola- another good old fashioned remedy is the neti-pot

 

You have no idea what you are talking about.

 

I am so lucky that I don't get sick. Never had a flu shot and never had the flu in my life. I get 2 small sinus colds a year that last about 3-5 days and then I'm good to go. I'm a firm believer that drinking massive amounts of Miller Lite keeps me healthy.

 

@merlin

Your math doesn't add up. Ford charges like $500 for a delivery fee. If the health companies charged the same as Ford it would be $502. Using percentages is misleading here.

 

I got ill with something.....

I got my yearly flu shot in late Sept. and on Oct.29th went on a cruise ship for a few days. A few weeks later I got real sick with either the flu or the
Norovirus that a lot of cruise ship cruisers get on ships.

I chose to stay home and not expose my doctor to the flu or the virus. I called the doctor's office for advise on how to take care of myself.
I made sure I stayed hydrated with drinking lots of sugar drinks and salty
clear soups.
People say that sugar and salt is bad for your health but when I get ill I make sure to comsume sugar items and salty foods to stay hydrated.
I forced myself to drink lots of water eventhough I knew it would be
vomited out of my system. It made it better for me than having dry heaves.

After I got better I stayed away from people because I heard that the virus
could still be in my body for one or two weeks. I could infect others.

I try to stay away from people who I see coughing at the stores. I turn around and walk away from them.

I am germ phobic and try to stay healthy so I can be able to travel to Vegas.
I already have 3 planned dates to travel to Vegas.