Slashdot Mirror
Nationwide Shortage In Supply of Swine Flu Vaccine
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that as the number of swine flu cases grows to levels unprecedented for this time of year, health officials predict a shortfall in the supply of swine flu vaccine. Forty-three children have died from swine flu since August 30 — about the same number that usually die in an entire flu season.' These are very sobering statistics,' says Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, 'and unfortunately they are likely to increase.' Projections of the supply of swine flu vaccine have widely varied. During the summer, health officials said 120 million doses would be ready in October but later dropped the estimate to 40 million doses. Now officials expect only 28 million to 30 million doses, adding that the exact number is impossible to predict and could change daily as vaccine manufacturers report that production was behind schedule. 'Vaccine production for influenza is pretty complex,' says Schuchat explaining the delay, 'and the complex process this year is taking a bit longer than we had hoped.' Schuchat warned parents with sick children to be alert for signs that medical attention is required including not eating well, difficulties breathing, and turning blue or gray. A particularly important sign is when children start to get better, then have a relapse, usually a sign that pneumonia is developing, and immediate treatment should be sought."
The loss of liberty is worse than any disease.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Let's not go throwing a strawman situation around.
We're talking about a strain of influenza.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
That's an interesting definition of professionalism, that it requires throwing ethics and morality out the window and blindly carrying out instructions, even if what you are being asked to do seems horribly wrong.
But it does answer the question as to why there are people out there who are willing to build chemical weapons, DRM rootkits, spyware, big brother surveillance systems, or what have you instead of refusing to be a part of it. They're just adhering to a higher standard of professionalism than superstitious losers who let their scruples get in the way.
Citation for the lazy:
Further citation:
And finally a graph showing the alarmingly elevated pediatric deaths for this time of year.
'course, I'm sure you'll just dismiss all this data. It is from the CDC, after all, and they're just an evil Big Government organization.
Me. I'm getting a flu shot, both to protect me, as well as to protect anyone I might otherwise infect if I got sick.
Nevermind the auto accidents, cancer, and homicide
And that's why I plan to let any infants I come across play with rusty nails and broken glass. Statistically speaking, they're way less likely to die from that than, say, a tumor, right?
Twat.
This is the event he is referenceing, and you are indicating is an absolute certainty
If a virus were to infect a cell, and the mexican flu would infect the same cell, there is some chance that the mantle of flu would be copied around the much more dangerous virus, which would beat any immunity or vaccine we currently have, would react differently to most treatments and be capable of spreading through open air (through coughing).
1. There is no such thing as the "Mexican Flu"
2. The flu is caused by the virus influenza, so collectively the first three sentence fragments demonstrate that he is an idiot with no understanding of infection or immunology.
3. Which virus is he claiming to be more dangerous? The immaginary Mexican Flu, or this unnamed virus?
4. He seems to be indicating that the packaging of the genes from Virus A into the viral coat of Virus B will some how make a new hybrid Virus A/B that is more virulent than either of it's progentors. However, once this new Virus A/B injects the genes from Virus A into a cell it will produce the viral coat for Virus A, not Virus B . That is because the scenario he describes includes no mention of genetic recombination of the two different viral genomes.
Here is a line that you need to remember in the future before posting in topics about which you know little if anything
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
The risks of complications from a vaccine are generally small, but non-zero.
Unless the risks from being sick with the flu is larger than that of the vaccine, it's still a net reduction. That's like saying one should never buckle seatbelts because sometimes they trap a person in a car causing death. However, seatbelts overwhelmingly save more lives, and we just happen to mandate them for this reason!
Seems like a legitimate issue to me, if not for the nurse/doctor's health but for the health of those they care for.
This I agree with. It *is* a legitimate issue. But your right to make demands ends absolutely when it comes to what another person does within their own body.
I can't force you to get the shot, correct. When your choices are a danger to the public (or, in this specific case, hospital patients), then your rights end once again. You don't have to get immunized, but you also don't have to work in the health care field.
It is (or should be) mandated that health care providers take due dilligence not to become a vector for potentially deadly disease. Whether that due dilligence be to get immunized, wear respiration gear at work, or not working in a field that would require such measures if one is not comfortable with them doesn't matter to me.
Your right to work in an industry is contingent on your abiding by all safety requirements. You can refuse to follow them, but you have no right to work such a job if you refuse. Take your bullheaded refusal to prevent transmitting a disease somewhere where it's less likely to kill someone.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
I don't post smart ass comments on topics upon which I am uneducated and unqualified. You and the parent apparently do. How can you know what is and is not going to happen if you know nothing about the underling science?
/. and I tend to limit my posts to asking questions instead of making affirmative remarks as you and the parent did. That I called you both out for making it obvious you don't know what you are talking about may sting, but it doesn't make me egotistical at all. Just better informed and probably more than a little pedantic. I can live with that.
While I may consider myself somewhat of an authority on the life sciences, I pretty much stay out of arguments over the physical and computer sciences. Both topics that are very popular on
I get annoyed when the uninformed spread misinformation, and those pretending to slightly more information accept the misinformation at face value. I was correcting not only you, but anyone that was reading your posts and possessed of a similar lack of immunological education. That you don't like being made an example of is understandable. Hopefully you will learn from the experience and keep you yap shut when you don't know what you are talking about, as I do. You will probably learn more in the process and make a fool of yourself less frequently. It's just friendly advice that I suggest you take.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
I get annoyed when the uninformed spread misinformation, and those pretending to slightly more information accept the misinformation at face value
Hey dumbfuck, I was correct and you are a blowhard. The quote I made was an observation of probability. A virus will mutate over time. That's a fucking fact. Statistically, over long time frames, viruses will emerge that are more lethal than the 1917 pandemic. That's also a fucking fact. That's the extent of what I said, so no, I wasn't spreading misinformation. Learn some math, dipshit, and learn to read.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!