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Not to be too callous about it, but I guess this is a rare situation where it is an advantage to be a semi-geezer.
The vast majority of those who died from the Spanish flu and apparently this new one also were young, healthy people because the immune response it causes can be overwhelming and fatal when the immune system is particularly strong.
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Unfortunately if this heats up like it looks like it could, it will be primarily working class folks that have to go to work and punch a timeclock or have kids to take care of that will really get clobbered. It would be worth thinking at this point what those of us who have the luxury of living a bit more "flexibly" could do to help eliminate the risk to those who are more confined.
I'd suggest that this might be a good time to steer this discussion in that direction.
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Someone mentioned on Konaweb that todays cruise ship in Kona may have stopped in Mexico before coming here. Thats going to probaby be the most most likely entry point on the Big Island for the spread of the disease.
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I'm thinking of the illegals that pop in and out. All in all, I believe the days of "preventive exposure" (wearing masks, living in isolation etc.) has passed and if we're going to get it, we're going to get it. It's out of our hands, and all we can do at this point is wait and see what happens next.
Here's a bit of very dark humor that was on CNN a few days ago. As we know, the streets of Mexico City are nearly deserted and most commerce has ground to a halt. However, one industry that is thriving is in video rentals due to people staying indoors and having time on their hands. All types of movies are flying off the shelves, with the one exception being horror movies. Seems like reality has trumped fiction in this particular category, and there's not much scarier than the drama unfolding before our eyes. Sort of reminds me of Steven King's "The Stand". Yikes.
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After all the huhu, some possibly practical advice. The link below was sent on by a friend, a health professional on the mainland who is very interested in immune system issues and was passed to him by his neurologist. The article basically says that (in the M.D. author's opinion, of course) that large quantities of vitamin D, 2000-5000 units a day, have a significant effect on the immune system to fend off influenza viruses. In fact, he thinks that adventitiously administered vitamin D helped some of his patients survive an institutional influenza outbreak. Further, he says, while the sun-starved denizens of office buildings may require pills, even short periods of full body sunshine have been shown to create significantly more vitamin D than even these high pharmaceutical doses. So, now we can ponder balancing more sun exposure and all the warnings we have been given about wrinkling and cancer with the possibility that such exposure could avoid many a nasty illness.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php
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Want to stop influenza in its tracks?
Head to the beach: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php
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And drink elderberry wine while at the beach.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave Smith
There is one point of perspective we should all keep in these discussions of the swine flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that roughly 36,000 people die each year in the U.S. from complications from regular seasonal influenza, and that includes 13,000 so far this year.
Bet if the word "Swine" was never used and only H1N1, and it started in Kansas and not Mexico, we wouldn't have heard a peep about it from anyone and nobody would have batted and eye.
Funny how a single word and a location outside the US suddenly makes this flu a cause for panic. The CDC should never have called this season’s influenza H3N2 originating in the midwest. They should have called it the Bin Laden Flu and say it originated in Afghanistan. Maybe people would react as fast and furious as they are now after the first 100 illnesses and 1 death. It's so hard to imagine the silliness and foolish response to “Swine” flu from “Mexico” when we already are in the middle of another flu that, as you mentioned, sickened over 250,000 and caused over 13,000 deaths in the US this year alone. Where’s the hype and panic over that flu? Oh I forgot, that's an American flu, from America, killing only Americans. We only panic over flus with scary names not alphanumeric designations and only if it started in another country. So long as we are killing ourselves, it's fine with us and shouldn't be a concern regardless of how many people die. Are we stupid or what?
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A pandemic is when a deadly new strain affects the whole world. It kills millions within a relatively short period of time, then goes dormant or whatever. The nightmare of 1918 was also a swine flu because it too came from pigs, and it was called "Spanish Flu" because it originated in Spain. Israel doesn't like the term "Swine Flu" because it's offensive to Jews and Muslims. I guess they'd rather call it "Mexican Flu", and if it does get nasty, that's what it probably will be called. We also worry about pandemics coming from chickens (Avian Flu) and then there was the Monkey Pox scare, SARS, and others. Fortunately, those potential disasters didn't pan out and hopefully, neither will this present situation.
The "annual flu" that kills tens of thousands in the USA is your garden-variety flu that comes every year during the "flu season". I guess it would be called "American Flu" if it only killed Americans, but to the best of my understanding, this annual flu does the same everywhere else in the world as well. It's a way of life, so to speak.
Bob, stupid people are the ones who don't have a concept of reality, and go out of their way to mock those who do.
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Strange that this news about vitamin D being so effective against flu
(and even autism, if you click through) hasn't made it to actual
newspapers, or websites that aren't selling vitamin D.
Very very few people have vitamin D deficiency, especially in Hawaii - or Mexico!
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